Kaichi Uchida was nowhere close to his best. The 29-year-old Japanese, who had reached the semifinals of two Challengers last year and was ranked in the world’s top 150 last year, hardly put a foot right as Italy’s Stefano Napolitano, the fifth seed, scripted a convincing 6-1, 6-2 win in the first round of the Chennai Open ATP Challenger tennis championship here on Monday.
Later, on the outside courts, Giovanni Fonio of Italy overcame a tough challenge to defeat Maxime Janvier of France 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.
Uchida, ranked 137 places below the Italian at 351, was way below par as the latter dominated the match completely. Napolitano’s first serves (82%) were superior to Uchida’s 57. There weren’t many long rallies as the Japanese continued to make numerous unforced errors making the Italian’s job much easier.
