Dominant: Napolitano eased previous Uchida in straight units.
| Photo Credit: RAGU R
Kaichi Uchida was nowhere near his greatest. The 29-year-old Japanese, who had reached the semifinals of two Challengers final yr and was ranked on the planet’s prime 150 final yr, hardly put a foot proper as Italy’s Stefano Napolitano, the fifth seed, scripted a convincing 6-1, 6-2 win within the first spherical of the Chennai Open ATP Challenger tennis championship right here on Monday.
Later, on the surface courts, Giovanni Fonio of Italy overcame a troublesome problem to defeat Maxime Janvier of France 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.
Uchida, ranked 137 locations beneath the Italian at 351, was manner beneath par because the latter dominated the match utterly. Napolitano’s first serves (82%) had been superior to Uchida’s 57. There weren’t many lengthy rallies because the Japanese continued to make quite a few unforced errors making the Italian’s job a lot simpler.
Napolitano broke Uchida’s serve in all of the video games barring the primary. In the second set, Uchida produced a few good backhand winners, however these had been few and much between. In reality, The Japanese acquired a code violation within the second sport of the second set. At 30-40 on his serve, he threw the ball out of the court docket after lacking a forehand shot. In distinction, the match between Fonio and Janvier was intense with lengthy rallies. The essential break for the Italian got here within the twelfth sport of the third set. Janvier started his serve with a double fault and ended with one other to present the match to Fonio. Napolitano mentioned he anticipated a troublesome match.
“Results might say that it is an easy match, but I don’t say that. I know the value of my opponent and his qualities. I know the way he’s been winning matches last year. Especially at this stage last year. Then he dropped a little bit,” Napolitano mentioned. S. D. Prajwal Dev of India certified for the primary draw with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Vadym Usru of Ukraine, thereby making him the lone Indian amongst 11 from the qualifiers.
The outcomes (first spherical): Stefano Napolitano (Ita) bt Kaichi Uchida (Jpn) 6-1, 6-2; Giovanni Fonio (Ita) bt Maxime Janvier (Fra) 6-4, 3-6, 7-5; Dominik Palan (Cze) bt Arthur Weber (Fra) 6-1, 6-4; Dan Added (Fra) bt Akira Santillan (Aus) 2-6, 6-4, 4-1 (retd.).
