New Delhi,12 May:An ill-tempered Yuki Bhambri squandered chances galore as Australian Adam Feeney sent the Indian teen packing in the opening round of the USD 50,000 ATP Challenger Series’ SAIL Open in New Delhi on Monday.
The only Indian in action in the singles on Monday, the 15 year old Bhambri went down 6-4 3-6 2-6 in an over two-hour contest.The wildcard entrant made a resounding start and broke Feeney, ranked 925 places above the Indian at 274 in the ATP charts, in the third game.
With his double-handed backhand earning him some stunning winners, the Indian teen broke his 23 year old rival again in the fifth game to race to a 4-1 lead.
Feeney broke back in the next game and reduced the deficit to 4-5 but serving for the set, Bhambri made no mistake and sent in a fine serve which the Australian could only return wide.
When Bhambri broke Feeney in the very first game of the second set, an upset seemed likely but the gritty Australian made sure that it never happened with a remarkable comeback.It all started in the fourth game in which Feeney broke Bhambri to make it 2-2.
Feeney led 5-2 after the Indian lost his serve yet again in the sixth game.Frustrated with the reversal of fortunes, Bhambri lost his cool after the chair umpire over-ruled the linesman on a return from Feeney that could have given the Indian a break point.
After losing the second set, Bhambri looked jaded in the decider and threw his racquet in disgust several times to vent his frustration, forcing the chair umpire to warn him.
A composed Feeney, on the other hand, held his serve and broke Bhambri twice to wrap up the match in his favour.
In another early morning contest, Kuwaiti Mohammad Ghareeb beat Australian Andrew Coelho 7-6 (4) 7-6 (5) to advance to the second round.
Meanwhile, Rohan Bopanna pulled out of the singles’ competition due to a nagging left knee injury that he carried through the Davis Cup win over Japan in New delhi last month.
Bopanna made the decision after he and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, seeded number one, crashed out with a 2-6 3-6 defeat to the unseeded Indo-American duo of Prakash Amritraj and Rajeev Ram.
In another doubles’ encounter, Harsh Mankad and Ashutosh Singh advanced to the second round after beating the Russian-Japanese pair of Alexandre Kudryavtsev and Gouichi Motomura 7-6 (2) 6-4.
In the singles, third-seeded Dane Kristian Pless defeated German Alex Satshcko 6-5 5-7 6-2 to set up a second round clash with Ukrainian Ilia Marchenko, who beat Brazil’s Ricardo Mello 3-6 6-4 6-0.
On Tuesday, Prakash Amritraj will take on American Brendon Evans, while Ashutosh will also open his singles campaign against Alexandre Kudryavtsev.
Mankad will be up against French Thomas Oger in his lung opener.