13 Indians in the main draw of Chennai Open challenger

Arjun Khade disposed of Luca Margaroli of Sweden in straight sets. Arjun’s first serve gave him a great advantage over the Swede. In the first set, he broke Luca in the thirteenth game and then held his serve to go up 7-5. In the second set, Arjun complemented his strong serve with aggressive ground strokes and went on to win 6-2. Arjun will play against Saketh Myneni in the first round of the main draw.

Sidharth Rawat had a much tougher time, downing the experienced Vishnu Vardhan. In the first set, both players shared a break and got to six games all. Vishnu served crisply while Sidharth played in a determined fashion. In the ensuing tiebreak, the 30-year-old Vishnu managed to squeeze past Sidharth. The effort seemed to have drained Vishnu and Sidharth ran up an early lead to win the second set 6-3 and level the match. In the third set, Vishnu conceded when he was down 1-4 to give Sidharth a place in the main draw. 

The local lad Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam will make his first appearance in a Challenger event when he moved without even hitting a single ball. His opponent Nikola Cacic of Serbia was suffering with fever and had to give a walkover.

The tall Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul of Thailand proved to be too good for Haadin Bava. The Thai player served well and stroked fluently on both flanks to win 6-2, 

6-2. The Main Draw will start on Monday at 10 am. 

RESULTS: Final round of qualifying: [1] Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul (THA) beat [7] Haadin Salim Bava (IND) 6-2, 6-2; Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam (IND) beat [2] Nokola Cacic (SRB) WO; [5] Sidharth Rawat (IND) beat [4] Vishnu Vardhan (IND) 6-7(7), 63, 4-1 (Retd); [6] Arjun Kadhe (IND) beat Luca Margaroli (SUI) 7-5, 6-2