Chennai Open: Prashanth enters main draw, last year's finalist Vasselin knocked out

Vijay Sundar Prashanth made it to the main draw joining compatriots Somdev Devvarman and Ramkumar Ramanathan as he rallied to beat Ukraine’s Illaya Marchenko 2-6 7-6 (7) 7-5 in a marathon third round of the qualifying event.

Prashanth, who had ousted Yuki Bhambri, faces world number 65 Jiri Vesely of Czech Republic in his first round of the main draw tomorrow.

Meanwhile, seventh seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain became the first causality when he retired midway in his opening round contest against unseeded Austrian Haider-Maurer due to cramps.

Granollers lost the first set 3-6 but turned the tables winning the second via tie break 7-6 (6) and was trailing 0-2 in the decider when he suffered cramps and gave in.

On the centre court, Gilles Muller of Luxembourg fought his way into the second round with a 6-7 (11) 6-1 7-6 (3) win over Roger Vasselin of France. He messed up his chances in the first set but contained his errors in the second and third to advance after battling hard for two hours and three minutes.

He frittered away a 5-3 lead in the opening set tie break but raised his game in the following sets.

In the third set, Vasselin tightened the grips and broke Muller in the 7th game but disappointed and was broken back in the 8th for a 4-4 scoreline. The match turned out to be interesting as the rivals were matching each other for points. Muller opened up a comfortable lead in the deciding tie-break and closed it in style.

“This was obviously not a good start to the year, but that is tennis. You have to take the good with the bad. Last year I reached the final and today I am out in the first round,” a visibly disappointed Vasselin said after the match.

“I must admit the tactic of giving up the second set so that I could be ready for the third did not work. I had my chances in the third set, but he played better than me, especially in the tie-breaker. I will now go to Sydney and then on to Melbourne.”

PTI