Prakash qualifies, Yuki bites dust at Chennai Open

India’s Prakash Amritraj qualified for the main draw of the Chennai Open defeating Germany’s Lars Poerschke in straight sets in the final qualifying round on Monday. Prakash, after a tough first set that went into the tie-breaker, got an early break in the second and carried forward the momentum from there on to enter the main draw. Prakash played solidly with his double-fisted backhands to score winners in the second set against Poerschke.

Other Indian contender in the fray Yuki Bhambri bowed out of the singles when he lost to Louk Sorensen (Ireland) in a hard fought three setter in the centre court. With the sun scorching on the centre court, the player with the better stamina had a better chance of survival.

“My goal was to qualify for the main draw and take it match by match. I think I’m headed in the right direction. It surely is an advantage to have a couple of matches under my belt. In that sense, it would be an advantage for having played in the qualifiers as it will give me a bit of my rhythm. I have worked on my physical training for four-and-half weeks while playing some tennis too. I feel good about my preparations and being based in the US is helping me to train with the goal of playing good tennis,” Prakash said after his final qualifying match.

Results: Final qualifying matches: Prakash Amritraj (India) bt Lars Poerschke (Germany) 7-6 (7-5) 7-3 Tsung-Hua Yang (Taipei) bt Dustin Brown (Jamaica) 6-2 7-5, James Ward (Britain) bt Noam Okun (Israel) 6-2 6-3, Louk Sorensen (Ireland) bt Yuki Bhambri (India) 6-2 6-7 (6-8) 6-2.