Karan Rastogi, who is a part of the group of players revolting against Davis Cup captain Leander Paes, rallied to beat Harsh Mankad while Navdeep Singh stunned top seed Kyu-Tae IM to advance to the second round of the USD 15000 ITF Futures tournament in Delhi on Monday.
Eighth seed Rastogi cashed in on an erring wild card Mankad 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 in a first round match, which lasted for two hours and 29 minutes.
Navdeep outplayed his Korean opponent 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 28 minutes at DLTA complex.
Mankad wrapped up the first set by breaking Rastogi in sixth and eight games of the first set despite dropping his own serve in the very first game of the match.
However, he failed to keep the momentum going his way as Mankad committed too many unforced errors in later part of match to let go opportunities, that came his way.
Mankad wilted under pressure when Rastogi started pushing him hard even as both the players struggled to negate the a strong wind that made shot making difficult.
Rastogi next meets winner of the match between Alexey Kedryuk of Kazakhstan and Hsin-Han Lee of Chinese Taipei.
It was a heartbreak for Ashutosh Singh, who bowed out after losing to third seed Spaniard Guillermo Alcaide.
He put up a spirited fight before going down 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 in one hour and 48 minutes.
Also advancing were Vinod Sridhar and Vivek Shokeen after overcoming their compatriots in straight sets.
While Sridhar upset national grass court winner Vishnu Vardhan 7-6 (6), 6-4, Shokeen pipped Aditya Madkekar, who is struggling to be fit since last national championship, 6-1, 6-4.
Sridhar next faces sixth seeded Chinese Peng Sun, who defeated Tsung-Hua Yang of Chinese Taipei 6-1, 6-4 in his first round clash.
