Ogrodov sent packing

Third seeded Oleg Ogrodov of Uzbekistan was sent crashing out of the ATP Challenger series following a straight sets hammering in the first round in Chandigarh on Monday.

Ogrodov went down 6-4, 7-5 to qualifier and compatriot Dmitri Mazur.

India suffered a blow with wild card Prahlad Srinath pulling out of the tournament on account of injury, enabling Nitin Kirtane to get a last-minute entry.

Mazur played an attacking game right from the start as Ogrodov struggled to hold serve. Mazur got the vital break in the fifth game, after Ogrodov served two double faults, and went on to take the set 6-4.

Ogrodov staged a brilliant rally, breaking Mazur in the fourth and sixth games to go 5-1 up, but the Uzbek qualifier played some inspiring tennis to win next six games in a row to clinch the affair.

Ogrodov wasted four set points, in the seventh and ninth games, and had only himself to blame for the loss.

While the third seed was wiped out, second seeded Andy Ram of the United States was given a scare as he was stretched in the first set by Briton Miles MacLagan. Ram prevailed 7-6 (7/4), 6-3.

After having broken MacLagan in the fouth game to lead 3-1 and then 5-3, Ram could not hold his serve and the Briton levelled the scores.

In the tie-break Ram broke MacLagan on the second and third points but MacLagan came back by taking the fourth and fifth points. After a see-saw battle, Ram took it 7-4.

Ranked 239 on the ATP and seeded fifth here, Jaimie Delgado of Britain had a tough time against Russia's Igor Kunitcin before rallying to win 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).

In the first match of the day, Glorglo Galimborti of Italy made it to the second round with a straight sets win over Frenchman Jean Michel 6-4, 7-6 (8/6).

Earlier, the matches on the center court were suspended for more than an hour when bees made an unexpected entry there. It took the organisers quite some time to shoo away the insects.

Eighth seed Vasilis Mazarakis of Greece was ousted by Slovakian Boris Borgula in straight sets 7-6 (12/10), 6-1.

Boris was broken in the fourth game but managed to break Mazarakis in the seventh. The set went in to the tie-break and Boris soon raced to a 4-0 lead only to be frustrated by some excellent shots from Mazarakis, who took the next six points on the trot to lead 6-4.

After this both managed in keep one service point each while getting broken in the second points until they reached 10-10.

Boris broke Mazarakis to take the 11-10 lead and served out the set with 12-10 in an hour three minutes.

Artem Derepasko of Russia had an easy passage to the second round. He won 6-4, 6-0 over Stefano Cobolli of Italy.