Somdev

New Delhi: Somdev Dev Varman survived a scare from wild card Denes Lukacs while Sanam Singh pulled off an upset win over sixth seed Grega Zemlja to make a stupendous start to the ATP Challenger event in Charlottesville in the United States.

Third seed Somdev had to dig deep to prevail over his Hungarian opponent 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 in his opening clash of the $ 50,000 hardcourt event.

Sanam, who entered the event as a qualifier, claimed the scalp of sixth seed Slovakian with a 6-2 5-7 6-4 win in his first round match.

Meanwhile, the top-seeded pair of Harsh Mankad and Treat Conard Huey suffered a shock first round defeat at the hands of local wild card duo of C-ory Parr and Todd Paul 6-7, 5-7.

In the Eckental Challenger event in Germany, Rohan Bopanna and his partner Rameez Junaid, seeded third, went down fighting against Austrian pair of Martin Fischer and Philipp Oswald 5-7, 6-3, 11-13 in the first round.

At Chuncheon in Korea, Prakash Amritraj beat Andis Juska 6-1 2-6 7-6(4) and book a quarter final berth in an ATP Challenger. (PTI)