Chennai Open: Rawat upsets Noguchi; Nagal, Sasikumar through

Sidharth Rawat stuns fifth seed Rio Noguchi of Japan.

IMAGE: Sumit Nagal recovered from a slow start to beat Britain's Felix Gill in the first round of the Chennai Open on Tuesday. Photograph: Ciro De Luca/Reuters

Key Points

Sumit Nagal and Mukund Sasikumar advanced to the second round of the Chennai Open ATP Challenger.
Sidharth Rawat caused a major upset, defeating fifth seed Rio Noguchi of Japan.
Former champion Nagal recovered from a slow start to defeat Felix Gill.
Mukund Sasikumar defeated fellow Indian Nitin Kumar Sinha in straight sets.
Several seeded players, including Federico Agustin Gomez and Oliver Crawford, progressed to the Round of 16.

India's Sumit Nagal and Mukund Sasikumar registered contrasting victories to advance to the second round of the Chennai Open ATP Challenger on Tuesday.

The biggest cheer of the day, however, from the home crowd came when Indian wildcard Sidharth Rawat produced a major upset, knocking out fifth seed Rio Noguchi in three sets.

The 32-year-old Rawat, ranked No. 715 in the world, recovered after losing the opening set 2-6 to win the next two 6-3, 6-2 and knock out the 246-ranked Japanese.

"Today's match was an absolute rollercoaster with many breaks of serve and a lot of ups and downs," Rawat said after the victory.

"I started a little slow in the first set, then took a short break, regrouped and came back strong in the second. I was feeling powerful in my legs and that helped me a lot. I was just going with the flow and following my instincts without overthinking."

In a late evening match, former champion and India No. 1 Nagal, who was part of India's Davis Cup win over the Netherlands in Bengaluru over the weekend, recovered from a slow start to beat Britain's Felix Gill 1-6, 6-1, 6-3.

Earlier in the day, Mukund fought back from an early break down in the first set to defeat fellow-Indian and close friend Nitin Kumar Sinha 7-5, 6-3.

Digvijay Pratap Singh goes down fighting

Digvijay Pratap Singh put up a strong fight before going down 7-6, 3-6, 7-5 to third seed Oliver Crawford in a three-hour contest - the longest match of the day.

Seventh seed Florent Bax of France also bowed out of the competition after being forced to retire in the third set of his first-round clash against Denis Yevseyev.

The Kazakh was leading 5-7, 6-4, 3-2 when Bax was unable to continue.

Second seed Federico Agustin Gomez, fourth seed Ilia Simakin and sixth seed Frederico Ferreira Silva also progressed to the Round of 16 after recording wins over Indian players.

Top seed Jay Clarke will begin his singles campaign on Wednesday against Ioannis Xilas.

Wednesday's schedule will also feature second-round singles matches and the completion of the first-round doubles matches at the SDAT Tennis Stadium, Nungambakkam.