Mumbai: Unseeded Rohan Gajjar of India caused the first upset in the USD 15,000 CCI-ITF Men's Futures Tennis Tournament at the Cricket Club of India when he stunned fifth seed Gerald Melzer of Austria in the opening round.
Gajjar, ranked 539 in the ATP rankings, trounced the 432- ranked Melzer 6-2, 6-2 in an hour to set up a second round singles clash with qualifier and compatriot Divij Sharan.
In the second surprise, unseeded Kittiphong Wachiramanowong of Thailand defeated eighth seed Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan of India 6-3, 6-1 in another first round tie.
Joining Gajjar and Sharan in the second round were compatriots and Davis Cuppers Karan Rastogi, the top seed, sixth seed Yuki Bhambri, Ashutosh Singh and Sunil Kumar Sipaeya.
Rastogi tamed wild card Arjun Khade 6-1, 6-1, Bhambri got past qualifier Kenny Bun of Cambodia 6-1, 6-1, Ashutosh overcame Alexander Satschko of Germany 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 and Sipaeya ousted compatriot and qualifier Abhijeet Tiwari 6-4, 7-5.
Among the Indians to crash out in the first round were qualifiers Vignesh Peranamallur and Vivek Shokeen and unseeded Vijayant Malik. All lost to foreign rivals.
Nicolas Reissig of Austria beat Vignesh 6-4, 6-2, no 4 seed Gero Kretschmer of Germany downed a fighting Vivek Shokeen 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 while Jaan-Frederik Brunken of Germany shut out Malik 7-5, 6-4.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 20:06