Siddharth Vishwakarma was unable to demonstrate his game in better light as he was beaten 6-4, 6-2 by fellow qualifier Samuel Ruggeri of Italy in the first round of the Dafa News $82,000 Delhi Open Challenger tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on February 27.
The wiry Siddharth had spells of good game but he was far too erratic to trouble the strong-built Italian with a sound game, for long. Every time Siddharth gave himself a chance for a better fight, he frittered it away.
Thus, Siddharth was unable to add to his kitty of four ATP points for qualification. He collected $800 for his effort.
The other Indian in singles action, earlier in the day, Ramkumar Ramanathan did not get into any rhythm and was outplayed by Tristan Schoolkate of Australia who had won the doubles title with Adam Walton in the Pune Challenger.
Schoolkate fired 14 aces in the match and converted three of seven break points, saving the two he faced to sail through.
Ramkumar will get to focus on his doubles as the top seed in partnership with Saketh Myneni.
The champion of the last Challenger, third seed Valentin Vacherot had to fight his way past qualifier Jonas Forejtek 6-4, 6-7(5), 7-6(4). Top seed Benjamin Bonzi recovered after losing the first set to outplay fellow Frenchman Enzo Couacaud.
The evergreen Evgeny Donskoy knocked out fifth seed Oliver Crawford in three sets.
The results:
Singles (first round): Benjamin Bonzi (Fra) bt Enzo Couacaud (Fra) 6-7(6), 6-2, 6-1; Enrico Dalla Valle (Ita) bt M Rifki Fitriadi (Ina) 6-4, 6-2; Valentin Vacherot (Mon) bt Jonas Forejtek (Cze) 6-4, 6-7(5), 7-6(4); Tristan Schoolkate (Aus) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-3, 6-2; Tristan Boyer (USA) bt Seongchan Hong (Kor) 6-3, 6-7(2), 7-6(7); Dane Sweeny (Aus) bt Maks Kasnikowski (Pol) 6-7(2), 7-5, 6-3; Samuel Ruggeri (Ita) bt Siddharth Vishwakarma 6-4, 6-2; Dalibor Svrcina (Cze) bt Bernard Tomic (Aus) 6-3, 6-4; Evgeny Donskoy bt Oliver Crawford (GBR) 6-2, 2-6, 6-2; Geoffrey Blancaneaux (Fra) bt Moez Echargui (Tun) 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Toshihide Matsui & Kaito Uesugi (Jpn) bt Parth Aggarwal & Sidharth Rawat 6-2, 6-1; Ray Ho (Tpe) & Calum Puttergill (Aus) bt Francis Casey Alcantara (Phi) & Yuta Shimizu (Jpn) 7-5, 6-4; Constantin Kouzmine & Maxime Janvier (Fra) bt Yu Hsiou Hsu (Tpe) & Coleman Wong (Hkg) 7-6(3), 5-7, [10-6].
