Defending champion Ilija Bozoljac crashes out of Kolkata Open

Frederico Ferreira Silva celebrates his win over Ilija Bozoljac in the first round

Kolkata, Feb 23 (IANS)

Serbian tennis player and defending champion Ilija Bozoljac crashed out on Day 1 of the Kolkata Open here Monday. Bozoljac struggled with muscle cramps and dizziness as he took two medical time-outs to try and recover. However, despite desperate attempts to recuperate he went down fighting to Portugal's Frederico Ferreira Silva, 6-4, 6-7(4), 3-6 on the hard courts of the Bengal Tennis Association Complex.

Australia's James Duckworth did justice to his top billing as he managed to surpass the strong challenge of qualifier Vijay Sundar Prashanth in the opening round. The first set went on with break of serves where Prashant was initially up a break and was leading 2-1 and on serve.

Thereon, service breaks came every now and then and eventually Prashant failed as he got broken twice consecutively, once at 3-3 and again at 3-4. Duckworth grabbed the opening set 6-3.

In the second set, Duckworth snatched an early break to lead 2-0 from where India's Prashant came back to level the score to 3-3. With a break in the eighth game, Prashanth won the second set to push the match to the deciding set.

In the decider, the scenario was completely opposite as both held on to their serves comfortably. However, Prashanth double faulted twice and dropped a game to go down 3-5, thereby allowing the top seed to step into the pre-quarter-finals of the $50,000 ATP Challenger event.

Elsewhere, Sanam Singh proved to be better than friend and rival Jeevan Nendunchezhiyan to win 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 in an hour and 33 minutes.