Sanam knocked out of Delhi ATP Challenger

New Delhi, Feb 17 (IANS) India’s Sanam Singh was knocked out of the opening round of the ONGC-GAIL Delhi Open, losing to eighth seed Illya Marchenko of Ukraine at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA) complex here Monday.

Sanam, who is a wildcard entrant, lost 2-6, 6-3, 4-6 in little over two hours. After going down meekly in the first set, the 352-ranked Indian came back strongly to win the second but too many unforced errors cost Sanam the final set and ultimately the match.

Other Indians in the fray had a better outing. Yuki Bhambri teaming up with Michael Venus of New Zealand in the men’s doubles, easily beat Ruan Roelofse and Izak van der Merwe 6-3, 6-3.

The team of Narayanaswamy Sriram Balaji and Ti Chen of Chinese Taipei were also victorious in the doubles as they beat Steven Diez and Go Soeda 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the next round.

India’s highest ranked singles players Somdev Devvarman and Yuki Bhambri will play their first-round matches Tuesday. Devvarman will take on wildcard Karunuday Singh while Bhambri will face Frenchman Lucas Pouille.