Chandigarh, Saturday, February 18 : The first day of singles qualifying matches saw some keen contests and some one sided affairs. Bun Kenny (Cambodia) top seed in the qualifiers disposed off Adit Jain (IND) in straight sets 6-2, 6-1. Akash Wagh (IND) second seed came from behind to dispose of his Indian compatriot Suraj Beniwal in 3 sets 1-6, 6-1, 6-4. Having lost the 1st set tamely Akash Wagh brought all his skills into play while beating of a spirited challenge from wild card entrant Suraj Beniwal. Ronak Manuja (IND) and Vinod Gowda (IND) fought a titanic battle for supremacy with Manuja winning the 1st set 7-6(3). Gowda then fought back to claim the second set 6-2. The 3rd set went the full distance before Manuja was able to put it across to Gowda 7-5. Hsien-Yin Peng (Taiwan) made short work of Shantnu Rajput (IND) in straight sets 6-0, 6-1. Vivek Shoukeen (IND) 9th seed carved out a well fought straight set win against Arpit Sharma (IND) 7-5, 7-5. Miles Bugby (Great Britain) 4th seed disposed off Rakshit Thakkar (IND) in 3 sets 4-6, 6-2, 6-0.
Danillar Duldaev (Kyrgyzstan) 6th seed and Liya Chloniya (Russia) were involved in a battle royal thriller which extended to 3 sets. Matching each other stroke by stroke. Duldaev after a see saw struggle for supremacy won the 1st set 7-5. Liya Chloniya then put it across to Duldaev as he notched the 2nd set 6-4. The 3rd set saw both the players matching each other stroke by stroke and finally Dulaev out smarted Liya Chiloniya 7-5 to clinch the match in 3 sets. The Sood brothers Chandril Sood (IND) and Lakshit Sood (IND) had mixed luck, while Chandril Sood disposed of wild card entrant Digvijay Singh Naruka (IND) in straight set 6-3, 6-3, and his brother Lakshit Sood slumped to 2nd seed Kunal Anand (IND) in 3 sets 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.
8th seed Matthieu Vierin (Italy) had an easy passage as he knocked off wild card entrant Yogesh Phogat (IND) 6-0, 6-0 and the other wild card entrant Dheeranush Singh Bhati (IND) CHART Trainee met the same fate at the hands of Motoaki Kita (JPN) 6-1, 6-0. The qualifying matches will start tomorrow at 10.00 A.M. on Sunday, the 19th February, 2012 at CLTA, Tennis Stadium, Sector-10, Chandigarh.