Prajnesh makes winning start at Liuzhou; Ramkumar, Nagal exit

Carrying forward his good form, Prajnesh Gunneswaran made a winning start at the Liuzhou Challenger tournament in China but it was curtains for Ramkumar Ramanathan and Sumit Nagal, who yet again fell at the first hurdle.

Prajnesh, who ended runners-up at the Ningbo Challenger last week, downed Frenchman Johan Tatlot 6-4 7-5 in his opening round of the USD 50,000 hard court event.

The seventh seed Indian will now clash with Egypt's Mohammed Safwat for a place in the quarterfinals. Prajnesh has beaten Swafwat thrice this season.

However, bad results continue to chase Ramkumar and Nagal.

Ramkumar, who has been struggling after his breakthrough performance at the Hall of Fame Open, where he reached the final for the first time in an ATP250 event, lost his opening round to Spanish qualifier Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-7(3) 3-6.

Qualifier Nagal lost his first round 2-6 3-6 to Japanese eighth seed Tatsuma Ito.

In the doubles, Arjun Kadhe and Yaraslav Shyla moved to the quarterfinals with a 6-4 6-3 win over Liam Broady and Duckhee Lee.

Meanwhile, at the Basel indoors, India's top doubles player Rohan Bopanna and his partner Parcel Granollers eased past Spanish duo of Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and David Marrero 6-1 6-4.