Ramanathan, Sanam advance

Ramkumar Ramanathan and Sanam Singh were the only Indians to survive the first round of the qualifying competition of the Aircel ATP Chennai Open tennis tournament, here Saturday.

Ramanadhan defeated compatriot Sumit Nagal 6-2, 6-0 while Sanam Singh blanked fellow-Indian Ajai Selvaraj 6-0, 6-0.

Other Indians, Mohit Mayur Jayaparakash, Sriram Balaji, Sasi Kumar Mukund, Saketh Myneni and Vijay Sundar Prashanth lost their respective first round matches.

The results (qualifying - first round): A Kudryavtsev (RUS) bt S Stakhovsky (UKR) 6-1 4-6 6-4; G Soeda (JPN) bt [WC] M Jayaprakash (IND) 7-6(2) 7-5; D Lajovic (SRB) bt [WC] S Mukund (IND) 6-3 6-4; R Ram (USA) bt L Giustino (ITA) 3-6 6-4 3-2 (Retd); M Elgin (RUS) bt A Martin (SVK) 0-6 7-6(5) 6-0; I Marchenko (UKR) bt F Cipolla (ITA) 6-3 6-0; R Albot (MDA) bt Y Uchiyama (JPN) 3-6 7-6(4) 6-1; F Nielsen (DEN) bt M Fucsovics (HUN) 6-3 6-2; K Khachanov (RUS) bt H Moriya (JPN) 6-2 6-4; S Singh (IND) bt [WC] A Selvaraj (IND) 6-0 6-0; H Laaksonen (SUI) bt N Balaji (IND) 6-1 5-7 6-4; A Giannessi (ITA) bt M Pavic (CRO) 6-4, 7-6 (3); N Gombos (SVK) bt B Balleret (MON) 7-5 7-6(7); R Ramanathan (IND) bt [WC] S Nagal (IND) 6-2 6-0; P Oswald (AUT) bt S Myneni (IND) 6-3 6-4; Z Zhang (CHN) bt N Prashanth (IND) 6-4 6-1.