Sasikumar scores upset win over top seed

Chennai: Talented Indian youngster Mukund Sasikumar caused a major upset ousting top seed Hiroki Kondo of Japan 6-4, 6-4 in the second round of the Shriram Capital P L Reddy Memorial USD 50,000 ATP Challenger tennis tournament here on Sunday.

Exhibiting his skills on good measure, Mukund served and stroked smoothly to break Hiroki early in the first set to gain the advantage and then never looked back. In another match, Prajnesh Gunneswaran (7th seed) kept his cool to break Joshua Milton of Great Britain once in the first and twice in the second set to emerge victorious. Qualifying Singles: Second Round Mukund Sasikumar(IND) beat Hiroki Kondo (JPN)(1) 6-4 6-4, Marek Semjan (SVK)(2) beat Vijay Sundar N Prashanth (IND) 6-4 3-6 7-5, Victor Baluda (RUS)(3) beat Ranjit Virali-Murugesan (IND) 6-3 7-6(2), Michael Venus (NZL)(4) beat Vijayant Malik (IND) 6-3 7-5, Sanam Singh (IND)(5) beat Artem Sitak (NZL) 7-6(2) 6-2, Richard Becker (GER)(6) beat Rahul Robinson Manoah (IND) 6-1 7-6(4), Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND)(7) beat Joshua Milton (GBR) 6-4 6-3, Karunuday Singh (IND)(8) beat Tristan Weissborn (AUT) 6-1 6-7(2) 6-4.