Maharashtra Open 2020: India's Sasi Mukund goes down fighting to Japan's Taro Daniel to make first-round exit

Pune: Young Sasi Mukund fought tooth and nail in the second set before going down against Taro Daniel on Wednesday, leaving Prajnesh Gunneswaran as the only Indian left in the men’s singles man draw of the at the Tata Open Maharashtra. The 23-year-old Indian youngster, who was handed a wild-card entry lost 2-6, 6-7 (7) in the opening round of the ATP 250 event. [caption id=“attachment_7691091” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Sasi Kumar Mukund. Image credit: Twitter/@MaharashtraOpen[/caption] “Making a main draw debut in Pune is a very special for me. Playing here has given me experience of playing in front of the crowd. I got broken too early in the sets. I had a chance with five all. It’s not because of that one break point why I am sitting here. It was because of all the points I played,” said Mukund, who played in the qualifying round in the last two editions of India’s premier ATP 250 event. Meanwhile, the Indian pair of Ramkumar Ramanathan and Purav Raja made it to the doubles quarter-final with a hard-fought 7-6 (6) 6-3 win over compatriot Sumit Nagal and his partner Egor Gerasimov of Belarus. They will now take on Leander Paes and Matthew Ebden. In another doubles contest, Robin Haase of Netherlands and Sweden’s Robert Lindstedt had to work hard for a 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 10-8 win over Dutch pair of Sander Arends and David Pel.