Unwell Jeevan exits from Raipur ITF Futures event

Raipur: An upset stomach forced top seed Jeevan Nedunchezhian to concede his second round match of the ITF Futures tournament but N Sriram Balaji kept himself in contention for a second successive title by reaching the quarter-finals, here today.

Left-handed Nedunchezhian won the first set 7-6 (5) but after losing the second 4-6, decided not to continue, feeling low on energy. "It was a bad day… Nothing much. I was not feeling well. even on day one and after having lunch yesterday it became worse. I will fly home tonight, take some days off and then go to Germany for pre-season training," Jeevan said. Second seed Balaji quelled a late challenge from Swiss Luca Margaroli 6-0 7-6 (3). Margaroli had no control over his shots in the opening set as he hit everything out but curbed his errors to put up a fight in the second. He broke Balaji twice to be in a position to serve out the set but the Indian broke back and clinched the issue in the tie-breaker. Balaji now faces sixth seed Ramkumar Ramnathan, who ousted qualifier Sasi Kumar Mukund 6-3 6-1. Fifth seed V M Ranjeet also progressed to the quarterfinals with a 6-2 6-1 win over Ashwin Vijayragavan. Eighth seed N Vijay Sundar Prashanth lost 2-6 6-7 (8) to Taipei`s Jui-Chen Hung. Jeevan was not the only player to retire. Ronit Bisht also retired from his second round against Jung-Woong Na when he was trailing 5-7 0-3. Arjun Kadhe also made an exit with a 4-6 5-7 defeat against German Torsten Wietoska while Abhijit Tiwari lost 4-6 2-6 to Markos Kalovelonis of Greece.