Tennis: India's Sharan ousted from Tashkent Challenger qualifiers

Sixth seeded Divij Sharan of India was the lone seed to fall in the first round of the qualifiers at the fifth edition of the $125,000 Tashkent Challenger which got underway at the Olympic School Tennis Complex here.

Doubles specialist Sharan, playing in a singles event after a long time, looked rusty against Italian wildcard Alessandro Motti. Motti won 7-6(7), 7-6(3).

In the first set, Sharan held five set points before Motti came back into the set and the match.

Uzbek player Sardor Rakhimov scored a creditable 6-4, 7-6(3) win over wildcard Adil Shamasdin of Canada to move into the second round along with 10 other countrymen.

Four qualifiers will make it to the main draw.

Qualifying round results (First round): Sardor Pulatov (UZB) bt Temur Kazakov (UZB) 6-0, 6-0; Khumoun Sultanov (UZB) bt Sharobiddin Abzalov (UZB) 5-7, 6-3, 6-1; Rasul Akhmadaliev (UZB) bt Anton Djamalov (UZB) 6-3, 6-3; 7-Sergey Shipilov (UZB) bt Timur Aysin (UZB) 6-0, 6-0; Alexander Tsatkin (UZB) bt Alexander Yarkov (RUS) 7-6(4), 6-1; 5-Vaja Uzakov (UZB) bt Iskandar Davutov (UZB) 6-1, 6-2; Pavel Tsoy (UZB) bt Mikhail Esipov (UZB) 6-1, 6-4; Shokhrukh Abdumalikov (UZB) bt Jakhongir Radjiev (UZB) 6-0, 6-1; 8-Batyr Sapayev (UZB) bt James Cerretani (USA) 4-6, 6-2, 2-1 (retd. Hurt); Alessandro Motti (ITA) bt 6-Divij Sharan (IND) 7-6(7), 7-6(3); Sarvar Ikramov (UZB) bt Burhon Gafurov (UZB) 6-0, 6-0; Frank Moser (GER) bt Omad Boboqulov (UZB) 6-0, 6-2; Sardor Rakhimov (UZB) bt Adil Shamasdin (CAN) 6-4, 7-6(3).