Yuki Bhambri, India’s top-ranked singles tennis player, secured his maiden win in an ATP Masters 1000 tournament when he beat Nicholas Mahut 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of the ATP Indian Wells tennis tournament on Friday.
Bhambri, who made the tournament through the qualifiers, beat the Frenchman in a marathon effort that lasted nearly two hours and saw him come back from behind in both sets.
Bhambri put in a gritty performance on Court 7 at Indian Wells, coming back from 1-4 and 1-3 down in the first and second sets respectively to ensure the match didn’t go into a deciding set.
Mahut didn’t have the best of days whilst on serve, as the Frenchman offered up five double faults whilst his first serve was at a dismal 55%.
Bhambri constantly applied pressure on Mahut’s poor serving game, something that was evident in the fact that the Frenchman faced a break point every time he was on serve during the second set.
This match was not Yuki Bhambri’s first appearance in an ATP 1000 tournament. In 2009, he was handed a wildcard for the ATP 1000 Miami event, where he lost in straight sets to Diego Junqueira in the first round.
{{/usCountry}}This match was not Yuki Bhambri’s first appearance in an ATP 1000 tournament. In 2009, he was handed a wildcard for the ATP 1000 Miami event, where he lost in straight sets to Diego Junqueira in the first round.
{{/usCountry}}In order to qualify for this tournament, he had to beat compatriot Ramkumar Ramanathan in the final round of the qualifying stages after first beating Dennis Novikov.
Yuki Bhambri will now face ninth-seed Lucas Pouille in the second round.