US Open qualifiers: Yuki Bhambri advances to second round

New York: Indian tennis player Yuki Bhambri advanced to the second round of the US Open men's singles qualifiers after a hard-fought win over Moldovas Radu Albot, here on Wednesday night.

Bhambri, 552 in the ATP rankings, beat world No. 107 Radu Albot 7-6(4), 6-4 in one hour and 34 minutes on the hard courts of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center .

Yuki was broken in his first service game by Radu Albot. However, the Indian immediately returned the favour and then built on the momentum to go 5-2 up in the seventh game.

The former junior Australian Open champion allowed his opponent a way back into the set which stretched into the tie-breaker.

The Indian won the first five points in the tie-breaker and then thwarted a late comeback to take the first set. The unforced errors kept flowing from Bhambri's racket in the second set but with decent net play and better breakpoint conversions, he won the second set to qualify for the next round.

The 30-year-old Bhambri will now take on world No. 155 Zizou Bergs of Belgium. There are a total of three qualifying rounds in the men's singles before the main draw action gets underway on Monday.

Meanwhile, India's highest-ranked men's singles player Ramkumar Ramanathan and Sumit Nagal could not cross the first hurdle.

Ramkumar, 241 in ATP rankings, lost to 18-year-old American Bruno Kuzuhara 3-6, 5-7 in one hour and 28 minutes. On the other hand, Sumit, ranked 464, was beaten by world No 132 Vasek Pospisil of Canada 6-7(2), 4-6.