The all-Odisha combination of Hans and Mohanty warmed the hearts of a sizeable crowd by putting up stiff fight their experienced opponents Kunal Anand and Anvit Bendre in the first set before losing in the tie-breaker. But lack of experience cost the local duo dear as they made a meek surrender the second set, losing 0-6.

Partnering with Tarun Anirudh Chilakalapudi (Telangana), Pradhan failed to put up a noticeable fight and suffered a 6-1, 6-2 drubbing at the hands of Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash and Vinayak Sharma Kaza.

The opening day of the main-draw schedule featured four singles and eight doubles matches. In singles, the dream run for qualifier Dhruv Sunish continued as he walked past Haadin Bava to enter the pre-quarter finals.  He came back from a set down to beat Bava 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. However, second seeded Siddharth Rawat lived up to his billing as he won a straight 6-4, 7-6(5) against younger Manish Suresh Kumar.

The week-long tournament, the first of its kind in Odisha, was earlier inaugurated by state Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi in the presence of All India Tennis Association (AITA) secretary general Hironmoya Chatterjee, Odisha Tennis Association (OTA) president Asit Tripathy and secretary Madhusudan Padhi.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik felicitated players and officials in a glittering function later in the evening. He also handed over cash incentives of Rs 50,000 each to Odisha’s budding tennis players Rutuparna Choudhury, Ameek Kiran Batth, Kabir Hans and Pratyush Mohanty. The Chief Minister assured government support for staging of Davis Cup matches at Kalinga Stadium. Leading Odisha player Chinmay Pradhan was absent in the special show.

RESULTS (Main draw):

SINGLES (First Round): Dhruv Sunish (Q, IND) bt Haadin Bava (IND) 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. Patrik Rikl (CZE) bt Jarryd Woog (Q, USA) 6-4, 6-4. Dalwinder Singh (IND) bt S Vishwakarma (IND) 6-4, 7-5. Siddharth Rawat (2, IND) bt Manish Sureshkumar (IND) 6-4, 7-6(5).

DOUBLES (First Round): Arjun Khade-N Prashanth (1, IND) bt Luca Pavlovic-Stefan Skadarka (FRA-AUS) 6-0, 6-3. Tyler Hochwalt-Sami Reinwein (USA-GER) beat Ansu Kumar Bhuyan-Vijayant Malik (WC, IND) 4-6, 6-3, 12-10. Kunal Anand-Anvit Bendre (3, IND) bt Kabir Hans-Pratyush Mohanty (WC, IND) 7-6(3), 6-0. Kazuma Kawachi-Chien Hsun Lo (JPN-TPE) bt Suraj R Prabodh-Dalwinder Singh (IND) 7-6(2), 6-0. Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash-Vinayak Sharma Kaza (IND) bt Chinmay Pradhan-Tarun Anirudh Chilakalapudi (WC, IND) 6-1, 6-2. Haadin Bava-Aryan Goveas (4, IND) bt Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam (IND) 6-7(3), 6-4, 10-6. Lakshit Sood-Dhakshineswar Suresh (IND) beat Goran Markovic-Manuel Pena Lopez (2, SRB-ARG) 6-1, 6-3.
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TOP: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik with players and officials of ITF Futures-1 in Bhubaneswar on Feb 26, 2018.
RIGHT: Odisha tennis players (L to R) Abhishek Mohapatra, Rutuparna Choudhury, Ameek Kiran Batth and Kabir Hans with their mementos in Bhubaneswar on Feb 26, 2018.