YUKI BHAMBRI TAMES CHAMPION YOSHIHITO NISHIOKA IN BUSAN

Yuki Bhambri tamed Yoshihito NIshioka of Japan in the first round of the $150,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Busan, Korea, on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old Yuki wrestled past Nishioka 3-6, 7-6(6), 3-0 when the Asian Games gold medallist retired, as he was possibly tired following his title triumph last week in the Gimcheon Challenger, when he came through as a qualifier.

Yuki had lost to Nishioka, who had risen to a career best rank of 58 last year, after winning the first set in the semifinals of the Asian Games in Incheon in 2014. The two met twice in the professional circuit in 2015, with Yuki winning at the Australian Open and Nishioka at the US Open, qualifying events.

The 94th ranked Yuki will play the Chinese Davis Cupper, Ze Zhang.

In the Challenger in Samarkand, Sriram Balaji did well not only to qualify, but fight his way in the first round against Filip Horanksy of Slovakia. Balaji recovered from a bad start to lead 0-6, 6-4, 3-1 before the Slovak equalised for 3-3 when ‘’darkness’’ stopped play.

In the Challenger in Germany, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan sailed into the doubles quarterfinals with his new partner Tristan-Samuel Weissbronn of Austria.

In the $25,000 ITF women’s event in China, Rutuja Bhosale progressed into the second round, but second seed Karman Kaur Thandi retired after five games in her match against Wushuang Zheng, with a pulled abdomen muscle. The 254th ranked Karman had beaten the Chinese girl in straight sets in the Canadian Open junior event in 2015.

‘’I had pulled the abs even before the doubles match, during the first day’s practice in Wuhan’’, said Karman, when queried about her retirement in the match.

The results:
$150,000 Challenger men, Busan, Korea
Singles (first round): Yuki Bhambri bt Yoshihito Nishioka (Jpn) 3-6, 7-6(6), 3-0 (retired).

€ 85,000 Challenger men, Heilbronn, Germany
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Tristan-Samuel Weissborn (Aut) & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Dustin Brown (Ger) & Darian King (Bar) 6-3, 6-4.

$75,000 Challenger men, Samarkand, Uzbekistan
Singles (first round):

Qualifying singles (third and final round): Sriram Balaji bt Tristan Lamasine (Fra) 6-1, 7-5; Manuel PenaLopez (Arg) bt Sasi Kumar Mukund 6-4, 7-6(5).

$15,000 ITF men, Kampala, Uganda
Singles (first round): Ajeet Rai (Nzl) bt Jayesh Pungliya 6-2, 6-3; VM Ranjeet bt Vasisht Cheruku 6-1, 4-6, 6-2; David Perez Sanz (Esp) bt Rishi Reddy 6-4, 6-3.

$15,000 ITF men, Thua Thien Hue, Vietnam
Singles (first round): Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam bt Jae-Min Seol (Kor) 6-2, 6-1; Paramveer Singh Bajwa bt Ku Keon Kang (Kor) 6-2, 7-6(5); Niki Poonacha bt Nawakarn Khunjan (Tha) 6-4, 6-2; Karunuday Singh bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-3, 6-2.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Jeremy Beale (Aus) & Karunuday Singh bt Pattanapong Borisutpong & Nawakarn Khunjan (Tha) 6-4, 6-1; Ji Sung Nam & Min-Kyu SSong (Kor) bt Dasuke Sumizawa (Jpn) & Nitin Kumar Sinha 7-6(3), 7-6(6).

$25,000 ITF women, Wuhan, China
Singles (first round): Rutuja Bhosale bt Yanni Liu (Chn) 6-3, 7-5; Wushuang Zheng (Chn) bt Karman Kaur Thandi 4-1 (retired).

$15,000 ITF women, Tiberias, Israel
Singles (first round): Vasilsa Aponasenko (Rus) bt Riya Bhatia 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.