Goveas, Manish bite dust in first round of Pune Challenger

India's Aryan Goveas and Manish Sureshkumar got a taste of Challenger-level tennis and made hasty first-round exits along with two seeded players in the KPIT-MSLTA Challenger here Monday.

Local wild card Goveas played well in patches before losing 3-6 4-6 to Canada's Brayden Schnur in 69 minutes at the centre court.

Schnur was part of his country's Davis Cup side when India lost the close World Group play-off tie 2-3 to the hosts in Edmonton in September last year. The two points India earned were for wins against Schnur, ranked 189.

It was all about flat, hard hitting for Goveas but it was not enough against a player like Schnur, who reached his maiden Challenger final early this year in Australia.

Goveas' serve was his biggest weapon and a few service return winners were a treat to watch but he lacked consistency. Tactically too, Schnur, who reached the semifinals last week in Bengaluru, was a superior player.

After trading breaks, Schnur broke the Indian one more time in the eighth