Karan, Ramkumar go down at PMRDA Powered MahaOpen ATP Challenger 100 Men’s Championship

Pune, 17th February 2025: Wildcard entrant 21-year-old Karan Singh went down in the opening round of the main draw, while Ramkumar Ramanathan went down in the final qualifying round of the PMRDA Powered Maha Open ATP Challenger 100 Men’s Tennis Championship organized by Maharashtra State Lawn tennis Association (MSLTA) in association with the Department of Sports and Youth Services Govt of Maharashtra, PCMC, PMC and PMDTA at the Mhalunge Balewadi Tennis Stadium.

In the main draw matches that started today, eighth-seeded Alexis Galarneau of Canada took 1 hour 3 minutes to give a lesson on the court to Wildcard and 21-year-old Karan Singh 6-4,6-1. The Canadian ranked 170 in the world broke Singh in the very first game of both sets, Singh looked confident in the first set but went down tamely in the second set.

Winner of the Last edition’s Maha Open Challenger in Pune Valentin Vacherot of Monaco who went on to be 110 ranked last year but is currently ranked 201 took off from where he left last year to create the first upset of the tournament toppling fourth-seeded Elmer Moller of Denmark 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 in just over 2 hours and make the second round.

Dalibor Svrcina of the Czech Republic a regular on the Indian Futures tour saved two match points to come from being 4-5 down in the third set to register a 6-4,3-6,7-5 win over August Holmgren of Denmark in the longest match of the day lasting 2 hours 26 minutes.

In the final round qualifying Seventh-seeded Kimmer Coppejans of Belgium stopped the advance of Davis Cupper Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-0 in a 2 hour 03 minute to qualify for the main draw. Ramkumar Showed Glimpses of brilliance in the second set, but his fitness failed him in the third set as he could not maintain the same tempo and went down tamely.

Michael Geerts also of Belgium, ninth-seeded Masamichi Imamura and Hiroki Moriya of Japan, sixth-seeded Ilia Simakin of Russia who ousted former winner of the Maha Open ATP Tour event Jiri Vesely of Czech Republic 7-5, 6-1. Another Russian Petr Bar Biryukov qualified for the main draw.

Results: Main Draw: First Round:
Valentin Vacherot (MON) bt [4]Elmer Moller(DEN) 5-7, 6-2, 6-4
[8] Alexis Galarneau (CAN)bt [WC] Karan Singh(IND) 6-4,6-1

Final Qualifying Round:

[3] Michael Geerts (BEL) bt [8]Justin Engel(GER) 7-6(4), 6-2
[9] Masamichi Imamura (JPN) bt [4] Blake Ellis (AUS) 6-1, 6-4
[6] Ilia Simakin bt [10] Jiri Vesely (CZE) 7-5, 6-1
[7] Kimmer Coppejans (BEL) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-0
Petr Bar Biryukov bt [11] Kris Van Wyk (RSA) 6-3, 6-4
Hiroki Moriya (JPN) bt [12] Matthew Dellavedova (AUS)

Doubles: First Round:
Jay Clarke(GBR) /Jurij Rodionov(AUT) bt Enzo Couacaud (FRA)/ Rio Noguchi (JPN)6-3, 5-7, 12-10.