Saketh Myneni fizzled out after early fight against World No. 10 Mikhail Youzhny to bow out of ATP Chennai Open on Tuesday.
Myneni was neck-and-neck with Youzhny in the first set which went on serve for nine games.
Serving to stay in the set, Myneni served a double fault at 40-30 for a deuce, saved three set points but netted a forehand on the fourth.
From there, it was a slide for the Indian and an easy ride for the Russian.
In the other matches of the day, Paire pipped Russian Konstantin Kravchuk 6-3 6-4 in his first round match, eighth seed Yen-Hsun Lu from Taipei outplayed Moldova’s Radu Ablot 6-2 6-1 and Britain’s Aljaz Bedene fought past Russia’s Guillermo Garcia Lopez 6-3 6-3 in his opening round.
Also advancing to the second round was Argentina’s Renzo Olivo, who faced stiff resistance from wild card Casper Ruud from Norway 7-6(3) 6-2.
Myneni said he paid the price for misjudging the speed of the strokes from Youzhny.
“I missed a few first serves and that did not help. I also mis-hit a couple of strokes and misread the speed. The first serve let me down. But I am happy with the progress I have made after having a shoulder issue last season, happy to play after two and a half months,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“I missed a few first serves and that did not help. I also mis-hit a couple of strokes and misread the speed. The first serve let me down. But I am happy with the progress I have made after having a shoulder issue last season, happy to play after two and a half months,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Myneni conceded that serving a double fault in the 10th game of the opening set at 40-30 affected the outcome of the match since it slipped out of his hands after that.
“Yeah, there are certain stages like that affect you. He is a quality player and misread the speed and that why I made those forehand unforced errors,” Myneni said, adding that he would try to do well at the Australian Open Qualifiers.