Yuki has it easy in the ITF tournament opener

Yuki Bhambri was clinical in his 6-2, 6-0 demolition of Ashwin Kumar in the first round of $15,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament at the DLTA complex here Saturday.

Yuki did not take long to close the match, winning it in mere 53 minutes even as the weather continued to be humid after some early morning showers.

Ashwin, a 23-year-old American of Indian origin, served big but lacked the variety to counter Yuki's all-court game. At times, he appeared sluggish and struggled to return the 16-year-old Indian's powerful ground strokes.

Yuki, playing his first tournament since Kuwait ITF tournament in May, showed no signs of rust, breaking Ashwin in the fourth and the eighth game. The American simply went through the motions in the second set with Yuki playing fluidly to seal the issue.

The fourth-seeded Delhi boy next plays qualifier Ashwin Vijayragavan, who beat another qualifier Mithun Murli 6-4, 6-3.

In the other first round singles matches, second seed Vishnu Vardhan proved too good for Briton Maniel Bains, beating him 6-3, 6-2.

Vishnu served with power and accuracy and broke Bains early in the second game of the match to pocket the first set. He then broke an erring Bains in the third and the fifth game of the second set for a second round meeting with quaifier Vijay Kannan who beat Rohan Gide 6-3, 6-3.

Meanwhile, N. Prashanth took the opening set against top seed Kento Takeuchi but then lost 6-3, 4-6, 1-6. Takeuchi next plays Vivek Shokeen.

Third seed Hyun-woo Nam made light of Indian qualifier Bhishma Desai, winning 6-1, 6-1. Nam next plays Ashutosh Singh who staved off a stoic challenge from Navdeep Singh 7-5, 6-3.

Last updated on Jun 30^th, 2009 at 18:05 pm IST--IANS