Hossam Stuns Top Seed Albot in Bengaluru Open

Bengaluru Nov 13 (PTI) Egyptian Youssef Hossam created the biggest upset of the tournament when he stunned top seed Radu Albot of Moldova in the first round of the USD 150,000 Bengaluru Open ATP Challenger here Tuesday.

Hossam, who is ranked 383 ranks below Albot and made the main draw after winning three tough qualifying rounds, defeated the Moldovian 2-6, 6-2, 6-2.

"I was both nervous and confident. Nervous because I was playing the top seed and was cursing the draw and confident because I did not have anything to lose," said Hossam.

Coming into the tournament with a dismal performance on Challenger Tour, Hossam was in a different zone on Tuesday. He lost the first set, but bounced back in the match by winning all his serves, which boosted his confidence in clinching next two sets.

Hossam had struggled to get past the second round of the Challenger Tour after he had won a ITF Futures title in Portugal in August.

"I stopped committing errors which kind of unsettled my opponent," said the winner who didn't lose his serve while achieving breaks in the fourth and eight game to garner the second set.

In the decider, Hossam seemed to lose the grip for a brief when he lost his serve in the third game but came back brilliantly to win the next five games on the trot. He broke his rival's serve in the 4th, 6th and 8th games to win the set and the match.

"In big matches, there are times when the underdogs perform well and today was such a day," said the 29-year-old top seed who had reached the third round of the US Open last year.

Slovenian Blaz Kavcic, who was seeded No.1 in the last edition but unseeded this year, raced past eighth seed Filip Peliwo of Canada 6-2, 6-0.

Among the five Indians, three including Saketh Myneni, Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Sasi Kumar Mukund, sailed through the second round.

Fourth seed Prajnesh easily trounced Russian Ivan Nedelko with a 6-2, 6-2 win, while wild card entrant Saketh beat fellow wild card Adil Kalyanpur 6-3, 7-6(3).

Mukund defeated American Collin Altamirano 7-6 (6), 6-3.

The last Indian in the main draw, wild card entrant Suraj Prabodh lost to Quentin Halys of France 3-6, 1-6.

The doubles matches also saw the top seeded Indo-German pair of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Kevin Krawietz crash out of the tournament with loss to Andrej Martin and Hans Podlipnik-Castillo 3-6, 6-3, 7-10.

Prajnesh, who has had a good run in 2018 and achieved a career high ranking of 141 last week, put his forehand to good use against the Russian Nedelko.

With two breaks in the 4th and 8th game, the Indian pocketed the first set 6-2 and in a fast paced game, broke Nedelko's serve in the 6th and 8th game to advance to the next round.

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