OST Sports Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Sept. 30:
Two seeded players bowed out of the men’s singles event of the AITA Men’s Ranking Tennis Championship, which began at the SOA University sports complex here on Monday.
While second seed Mohammed Azhar of Bengal was blanked out 6-0, 6-0 by Abhinansu Borthakur of Assam, eighth seed Rohit Rampuria of Bengal suffered a shock defeat from SD Prajwal Dev of Karnataka 6-2, 6-2.
Borthakur, ranked 117, had no problem disposing of Azhar, who had a much higher ranking (59).
In another match, third seed V Naidu of Karnataka beat his state mate S Srinivasa Darshan 7-6, 6-1, Vishnu Jinan of Karnataka beat Avilash Mishra of Odisha 6-2, 6-4 and Neeraj Choudhury of Madhya Pradesh overcame a tough fight from Prateek Pushkar Baxi of Chhattishgarh 7-6, 4-6, 6-2.
Odisha’s Chinmay Pradhan is the top seeded player in the men’s singles event.
