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Second seed Sumit Nagal made a brilliant start to his Chennai Open campaign, beating fellow Indian SD Prajwal Dev 6-1, 6-2 in the first round on Tuesday, February 6.
It took Nagal only an hour and 20 minutes to breeze past Prajwal Dev, who was the only Indian to make it through to the main draw after taking part in the qualifiers.
Nagal converted five out of the nine break-point chances he got, which turned out to be the crucial factor in the context of the match.
Prajwal Dev broke his opponent’s serve once, but it was always going to be an uphill task for him to get the better of Nagal, who was fresh off his incredible showing in the Australian Open 2024, where he defeated Alexander Bublik.
Nagal will next be up against Italy’s Giovanni Fonio in the second round. Fonio beat France's Maxime Janvier 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 in a hard-fought opening-round match.
Mukund Sasikumar also advanced to the second round of the Chennai Open after beating Poland’s Maks Kasnikowski 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in two hours and 25 minutes.
Both players faltered big times with their serves, but it was Mukund, who was slightly better than his opponent, registering six breaks compared to Kasnikowsk’s five.
Mukund won only 27 percent of points (7 out of 26) from his second serves and that is one aspect of his game he would want to improve upon. Mukund also got the better of his Polish opponent with 10 aces.
Chennai Open 2024: Day 3 Results (February 6)
Sumit Nagal (India) beat SD Prajwal Dev (India) 6-1, 6-2
Mukund Sasikumar (India) beat Maks Kasnikowski (Poland) 6-3, 4-6, 7-5
Chennai Open 2024: Day 4 Fixtures (February 7)
Sumit Nagal (India) vs Giovanni Fonio (Italy) - Starts at 3:00 PM
SD Prajwal Dev/Nitin Kumar Sinha (India) vs Toshihide Matsui/Kaito Uesugi (Japan) - Starts at 3:00 PM
N.Sriram Balaji (India) / Andre Begemann (Germany) vs Constantin Bittoun Kouzmine/Maxime Janvier (France - Starts at 3:00 PM
Yu Hsiou Hsu (Chinese Taipei) / Arjun Kadhe (India) vs Francis Casey Alcantara (Philippines) / Kaichi Uchida (Japan) - Followed by
Saketh Myneni/Ramkumar Ramanathan (India) vs Ray Ho (Chinese Taipei) / Piotr Matuszewski (Poland) - Followed by
Parikshit Somani/Manish Sureshkumar (India) vs Moez Echargui (Tunisia) / Giovanni Fonio (Italy) - Followed by
Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli/Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (India) vs Stefano Napolitano (Italy) / Oriol Roca Batalla (Spain) - Followed by
