Mumbai : Second seed Nitin Kirrtane of Maharashtra won the deciding set to advance to the second round, in the 3.5 lakh MSLTA-IOC Khar Gymkhana All India Ranking Men’s tennis tournament on Monday.
Maharashtra No. 1 Kirrtane, of Deccan Gymkhana, Pune endured opening round blues when he dropped the first set in the best-of-three first round against Krishna Teja Ankam of Telangana.
Struggling to find his rhythm that was the cause of the indifferent start, Kirrtane recovered well and utilized his vast experience on the domestic circuit to ignore the early deficit to coast to a 1-6, 6-1, 6-1 win.
Another Puneite, Anvit Bendre of Kothrud, who trains under former India coach Nandan Bal, also was taken the distance before rallying to a hard-fought 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 win over Rithvik Anand of Tamil Nadu.
Bendre set up a second round clash against top seed Kunal Anand of Delhi who eased past Raghav Jaisinghani of Madhya Pradesh 6-3, 6-0. The other first round winners were Chilakalapud Anirudh of Andhra Pradesh, Rohit Rampuria of West Bengal, Jatin Dahiya of Delhi, Bhavesh Gour and Yash Yadav, both of Madhya Pradesh.
Results
(1st round): Kunal Anand (Del) bt Raghav Jaisinghani (MP) 6-3, 6-0; Nitin Kirrtane (Mah) bt Krishna Teja Ankam (Tel) 1-6, 6-1, 6-1; Anvit Bendre (Mah) bt Rithvik Anand (TN) 6-3, 2-6, 6-4; Chilakalapud Anirudh (AP) bt Anurag Nenwani (Del) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; Bhavesh Gour (MP) bt Aaditya Tewari (MP) 4-6, 6-1, 6-2; Rohit Rampuria (WB) bt Sunil Malik (Guj) 6-3, 6-2; Yash Yadav (MP) bt Jagmeet Singh (Har) 6-2, 7-5; Jatin Dahiya (Del) bt Ominder Baisoya (Har) 7-5, 6-2.
