Mahadevan lone seed to crash out in first round

Except for seventh seed Arjun Mahadevan of Tamil Nadu, all remaining seven seeds moved into the singles second round in the JS Pereira Memorial AITA Ranking Men's Tennis Tournament Tuesday.

The Tamil Nadu player started promisingly and managed to win an energy-sapping first set against Maharashtra's unseeded Shahbaaz Khan.

But thereafter Mahadevan clearly seemed to have ran out of steam and tamely lost the next two sets as Khan clinched a deserving 6-7(5), 6-1 and 6-2 win to book a place in the second round at the Bandra Gymkhana.

Top seed Ishaque Eqbal of West Bengal staved off a spirited fight from Kerala's Suraj H to snatch a straight set 7-5 6-4 victory in his opening round encounter.

Punjab's second seed Paramveer Singh Bajwa had a much easier time as he outplayed Maharashtra's unseeded Nishant Mehta 6-1, 6-4 in another first round encounter.

Third seed Amarnath Arora and fourth seed Shivam Dalmia, both from Delhi, also won their first round encounters to progress ..