Top seed Australian James Duckworth survived some anxious moments before scraping past Indian qualifier N Vijay Sundar Prashanth in the first round of the USD 50,000 Kolkata Open, here today.
A heavily-sweating Duckworth mostly relied on his big serve to take the lead but the qualifier from Chennai grabbed the second set but only to go down 6-3 3-6 6-3 in a battle lasting two hours and seven minutes at Bengal Tennis Association courts.
In the pre-quarters, the 23-year-old will once again run into Indian wild card Sanam Singh who had stunned the top seed in the last week's Delhi Open.
Sanam overcame a first set deficit to get the better of another wildcard Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 2-6 6-2 6-0.
The opening day's highlight however was seen on court 4 where defending champion Ilija Bozoljac was shown the door by 19-year-old Frederico Ferre Silva of Portugal.
Having taken the lead, the Serb took a medical timeout but the Portugese left-hander put up a dogged fight to wrap the issue 4-6 7-6 6-3.
Duckworth was 1-2 down in the first set which went on with break of serves before the Aussie went for the kill, while in the second both were 3-3 and from where the Indian went on to equalise.
"I was scrappy and not in my best of form whereas he (Vijay) having played in the qualifiers here was better adapted to the conditions," a relieved Duckworth said.
Drenched in sweat, Duckworth had to change his shorts and t-shirt and was relying heavily on his blue electrolytes as he snatched the match from being 3-3 in the decider.
"I carry my electrolytes in a big bag whenever I go. This is a special potassium and magnesium combination that I rely on," the Sydney-born lad said.
Blaming his loss in Delhi to his delayed visa, he said, "It was not an ideal preparation as I checked in late and hardly got any time to acclimatise."
The Aussie however said he's in better better prepared this time and a day's break would put him in perfect shape.
"Heat is not a problem for me and I'm looking forward to play him next. The target is to push my ranking and get into top 100," the 111st ranked Duckworth concluded.
Results (Round 1)
Men's Singles: James Duckworth (Aus) b N Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-3 3-6 6-3; Sanam Singh b Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 2-6 6-2 6-0; Alex Bolt (Aus) b Saketh Myneni 7-5 6-4; Kevin Rawietz (Ger) b Vinayak Sharma Kaza 6-2 7-6; Frederico Ferre Silva (Por) b Ilija Bozoljac (Srb) 4-6 7-6 6-3; Miki Jankovic (Por) b Pedja Krstin (Por) 4-6 6-3 3-1 retd; Tsung-Hua Yang (Tpe) b David Perez Sanz (Esp) 6-7 6-1 6-2.
Men's Doubles: Ramkumar Ramanathan/Divij Sharan b N Sriram Balaji/ Vishnu Vardhan 7-5 4-6 10-8; Egor Gerasimov/ Alexander Kudryavtsev b Niki Kaliyanda Poonach/Shahbaaz Khan 6-2 6-2; Dino Marcan/ Antonio Sancic (Por) b Miki Jankovic (Srb)/ Mohamed Safwat (Egy) 6-2 6-3; Toni Androic/ Nikola Mektic (Cro) b Chandril Sood/ Lakshit Sood 6-3 6-4. (Indians unless specified).
