3 Indians progress to second round of qualifiers in Chennai Open ATP Challenger

Three Indians, N Vijay Sundar Prashanth, Arjun Khade and Sumit Nagal advanced to the second round of men's singles main draw of the Chennai Open ATP Challenger 80 tennis tournament, here Monday.

Wild card entrant and local player Vijay Sundar Prashanth stole the show with a

6-2 2-6 6-2 win over Carlos Boluda-Purkiss of Spain in three sets.

He started in flamboyant fashion, stroking smoothly on both flanks and served with precision, breaking his rival twice in the first set to run out an easy winner.

In the second set, the Spaniard improved his first serve percentage and held his serve despite facing six break points. The Indian appeared to lose concentration and lost two of his service games to let Boluda-Purkiss take the set 6-2.

In the decider, Prashanth found his form and took advantage of his opponent's short returns by moving forward and putting away crisp volleys. From 2-all he took the next four games to seal a second round berth against compatriot and 11th-seed Saket ...