Smooth start for Yuki at Pune Challenger

Top seed Yuki Bhambri made a fluent start to his campaign at the ATP Challenger event, comfortably beating local wild card Anvit Bendre in straight sets even as four more Indians advanced to the singles second round, here on Monday.

Yuki, who was in terrific touch, outplayed Bendre 6-3 6-3 in his first round match that lasted mere 70 minutes. He never faced a breakpoint on his serve and broke his rival thrice in the contest.

“Good to start off with a win and get a feel of the diet. It gets tougher from now on but hopefully I will be ready for challenges ahead,” Yuki, who on Monday dropped out of top-100, told a media person.

Yuki said he was not thinking about rankings. “The focus is to do well. I am not think about rankings.”He will next face Nikola Milojevic, who got the better of Czech Republic’s Michal Konecny 6-4 6-1.

Also advancing was wild card and junior wimbledon doubles champion Sumit Nagal, who beat compatriot and senior pro Purav Raja 6-4 6-4 in one hour and 20 minutes. Raja, who focuses more on doubles, had made it to the singles draw as a qualifier. National championship finalist Vishnu Vardhan pipped Belarus’ Egor Gerasimov 6-4 7-5 while left-handed Prajnesh Gunneswaran beat fellow qualifier Temur Ismailov 6-4 2-6 7-6(6).