Yuki Bhambri outplay Arjun Kadhe in Maharashtra Open

Yuki Bhambri outplayed wild card and local boy Arjun Kadhe 6-3, 6-4 in the opening round of the Maharashtra Open Tennis tournament in Pune yesterday. 

The country's top-ranked singles player, who is ranked 118, will now fight it out with eighth seed Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who overcame Marco Cecchinato in three sets 7-6, 6-7, 6-2. 

However, Sumit Nagal’s ATP World Tour debut ended when he lost to Belarusian Ilya Ivashka in straight sets 3-6, 3-6. Nagal, ranked 223, came into the match



after winning the Bengaluru Open and two qualifying matches in Pune for his maiden ATP World Tour event.

In other singles matches of the day, fifth seed Ribin Haase defeated Blaz Kavcic 7-6, 7-5 while Laslo Djere bounced back to beat Marius Copil 5-7, 6-4, 7-5.

In the doubles event, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Rohan Bopanna began the defence of their title by knocking out Leander Paes and Purav Raja. The pair beat their unseeded Indian rivals 6-3, 6-2 to progress to the quarterfinals.