Karan, Divij begin with win; Purav, Vijay Kannan crash out

New Delhi, Dec 18 (UNI) Karan Rastogi, Divij Sharan and Ashutosh Singh kicked off their campaign on a winning note, while Purav Raja and Vijay Kannan fell by the wayside in the first round of the State Bank of Saurashtra Indian Open Championship at the DLTA Complex here today.

Fifth seed Karan Rastogi tamed compatriot Vishnu Vardhan 6-4, 6-2, while seventh seed Divij Sharan came from behind to get the better of Navdeep Singh 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Purav Raja and Vijay Kannan, however, had their campaign cut short early in the first round.

Bulgarian Todor Enev beat Vijay Kannan 6-4, 6-4, while Purav Raja came a cropper against Hiroki Kondo and went down 6-2, 6-2.

In other matches, Frenchman Xavier Pujo beat Vladislav Bondarenko of Ukrain 6-3, 6-4, while Lee Hsin-Har of Chinese Taipei pulled off the first upset of the tournment, upstaging sixth seed Peter Jelanic of Croatia 6-1, 6-3.

UNI AY DH DB1931