Indian challenge snuffed out

Chennai, Dec 30 (UNI) The Indian challenge in the qualifying matches of the Chennai Open ATP World Tennis tour ended without a whimper as all the four in fray crashed out in the first round itself here this evening.

N Sriram Balaji went down to Phillip Petzschner of Germany 6-7, 3-6,after offering some fight in the first set, while wild card Ashutosh Singh was humbled by big serving Czech Friedl Leos 6-0, 6-2.

The other wild card, Vishal Punna put up a brave fight before going down to Ivanov Pavel of Russia 4-6, 4-6, while P Ravishankar was beaten 3-6, 2-6 by Simone Bolelli of Italy.

Results (Qualifying- First Round): Lars Burgsmuller (Ger) bt Robin Vik (Cze) 6-4, 6-7 (3), 7-5, Santiago Giraldo (Col) bt Frederik Nielson (Den) 6-2, 6-4; Philip Petzschner (Ger) bt Sriram Balaji 7-6, 6-3, Harel Levy (Isr) bt Tomas Zib 3-6, 6-0, 7-5, Konstantinis Economidis (Ger) bt Sebastian Rieschick (Ger) 6-1, 6-2, Michal Mertinak (Svk) bt Stephen Amritraj (USA) 6-3, 6-3, Woong-Sun Jun (Kor) bt Pablo Andujar (Esp) 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, Marin Cilic (Cro) bt Tomas Behrend (Ger) 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-5; Dick Norman (Bel) bt Jonathan Marray (Gbr) 6-4, 6-0, David Skoch (Cze) bt Lovro Zovko (Cro) 3-6, 6-1, 6-4; Leos Friedl (Cze) bt Ashutosh Singh (Ind) 6-0, 6-2, Alexander Peya (Aut) bt Mikhail Ledovskikh (Rus) 7-6, 6-4, Simone Bolelli (Ita) bt Pathanjali Ravishanker (Ind) 6-3, 6-2, Pavel Ivanov (Rus) bt Vishal Punna (Ind) 6-4, 6-4, James Auckland (Gbr) bt Joshua Goodall (Gbr) 7-6, 7-6.

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