New Delhi, May 10 (Inditop.com) India’s Yannick Nelord overcame eighth seed Hsin-Han Lee of Chinese Taipei 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 while compatriot Vijayant Malik made heavy weather of his 6-2, 7-6(6) win against a struggling Vaja Uzakov of Uzbekistan on the opening day of the $15,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament at the DLTA complex here Monday.
It was, however, the end of road for wildcards Vaidik Munshaw and Saurabh Singh of India. Munshaw was shown the door by Chinese Xin-Yuan Yu 2-6, 4-6 while Singh lost to Chinese qualifier Wan Gao 6-2, 7-5.
Nelord, who crashed out of the first round of Kolkata ITF last week, overcame mid-match jitters to win in one hour and 36 minutes. He now awaits the winner of the match between Vivek Shokeen and qualifier Liang-Chi Huang of Chinese Taipei.
In the last of the four singles scheduled Monday, Malik squandered opportunities in the second set after racing through the first against Uzakov, who complained of nausea.
The Uzbek Davis Cupper, with a big serve and power-packed groundstrokes was erratic and Malik had little problem reeling off the last four games of the first set.
The searing heat seemed to be getting the better of Uzakov and he soon fell behind 0-3 in the second set. But just when it looked that it is going to be a stroll in the park for Malik, Uzakov hung on to break back in the fifth and the seventh.
The Uzbek saved three match points in the ninth games before forcing the issue to the tie-break, where Malik finally prevailed.
Malik next plays the winner of the match between Sudanwa Sitaram and seventh seed Karan Rastogi.
rounak