 Chennai: Indian wild card entrants suffered mixed luck as Yuki Bhambri entered the second round while his compatriot Vishnu Vardhan waged a grim battle before losing in three sets in the ATP Aircel Chennai Open.
Bhambri shocked higher-ranked Karol Beck of Slovakia 6-2 6-3 to set up a second round clash against top seed Janko Tipservic of Serbia. Vishnu lost 6-4 6-7 1-6 against Croatia's Ivan Dodig, seeded fifth in the tournament and ranked 36 on world chart.
Had Vishnu made the next round, it would have been the first time in the 17-year-long history of the tournament that the two wild card Indians entering the second round.
Winning the first set 6-4, Vishnu, who played a tight game and never relented in moving upfront for winners, led 6-5 and was serving for the match in the 12th game, when the Croat saved two match points.
Displaying tremendous variations in pace and game plan, Bhambri, ranked 345 to Beck's 101, eked out his second men's tour win after defeating the Slovakian in 79 minutes in front of a sparse crowd at the Centre Court.
It was tough going for Bhambri as he won the match only on his seventh match point after Beck failed to put across the Indian's cross-court forehand return.
Bhambri, who had earlier won a first-round tour match in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2010, was in his elements today and played a waiting game to race to a 4-1 lead with a break in the fourth game and then led 5-2 with another break.
However, his serve was broken in the eighth. But the Delhi-boy held on to his smart serves and wrapped up the first set with his third break.
The Indian, a world junior title winner in Australia, won the match that was also helped by a series of unforced errors by Beck.
In the first set, Beck made few errors and created room for Bhambri to score points. Beck also fared poorly in winning points on serves but upped his game in the second set.
Bhambri maintained the momentum in the second set, broke his rival in the fourth game, held his fifth and played powerful tennis in the sixth to lead 5-1.
Beck tried to make a comeback in the seventh when Bhambri was up on winning the match at 6-2 but lost three match points. The Indian finally managed to win the ninth game and the match.
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