Ramkumar, Nagal, Prashanth advance to second round

Davis Cup team mates Ramkumar Ramanathan and Sumit Nagal led India’s charge at the KPIT-MSLTA ATP Challenger by advancing to the singles second round, albeit in contrasting style, here on Tuesday.

Fifth seed Ramkumar struggled past left-handed Russian Alexander Zhubrin 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 while Nagal fashioned an impressive 7-5, 6-3 win, marred only by a slight disagreement with the umpire, over Spain’s Marc Giner.

Joining them in the second round was Vijay Sundar Prashanth with an easy 6-2, 6-3 win over young Jayesh Pungliya but it was curtains for N Sriram Balaji, who put up a valiant fight against sixth seed Serbian

Nikola Milojevic in a 5-7, 6-7 (2) defeat in his first round.

Also making an exit was Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash, who lost 4-6, 2-6 to top seed Evgeny Donskoy.