Sumit Nagal brooked no challenge against Rio Noguchi even as local teenager Manas Dhamne showed nerves of steel to win their first-round matches at the Pune ATP Challenger 2026 on Tuesday.
Competing at the Balewadi Stadium, Nagal produced a clinical 6-1, 6-2 victory over seventh seed Rio Noguchi of Japan. The Indian dictated play from the baseline and looked sharp in all departments to advance comfortably into the second round in an hour and nine minutes.
Dhamne, a wildcard entry to the singles main draw, continued his impressive showing after battling past the winner of last week’s Delhi Open champion Stefanos Sakellaridis of Greece 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).
The 18-year-old Manas Dhamne, 489th in the men’s singles rankings, displayed maturity beyond his years by holding his nerve in a tight second-set tie-break to secure a win over world No. 220 Stefanos Sakellaridis of Greece. Dhamne will take on former world No. 40 Ilya Ivashka in the second round on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, eighth seed Edas Butvilas of Lithuania brushed aside local Indian wild card Aditya Balsekar 6-0, 6-1. Meanwhile, Karan Singh went down 6-3, 6-1 against qualifier Maks Kasnikowski of Poland.
Third seed Ilia Simakin edged past qualifier Mitsuki Wei Kang Leong of Malaysia with a 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (12/10) win in a closely fought encounter lasting two hours and 24 minutes.
Sixth seed Federico Cina from Italy registered a dominant 6-1, 6-0 win over Japanese qualifier Takuya Kumasaka.
Britain’s Felix Gill managed to stage a remarkable comeback to defeat Belgian Michael Geerts 1-6, 7-6 (11-9), 6-4, while fifth seed Frederico Ferreira Silva of Portugal moved into the next round with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Petr Bar Biryukov.
Qualifier Wu Tung-lin of Chinese Taipei also continued his good run by accounting for lucky loser Alexandr Binda of Italy 6-1, 6-2.
Results: Men’s singles (1st round): 8-Edas Butvilas (Ltu) beat Aditya Balsekar (Ind) 6-0, 6-1; 6-Federico Cina (Ita) beat Takuya Kumasaka (Jpn) 6-1, 6-0; Felix Gill (Gbr) beat Michael Geerts (Bel) 1-6, 7-6(9), 6-4; 5-Frederico Ferreira Silva (Por) beat Petr Bar Biryukov 6-3, 6-4; Tung-Lin Wu (Tpe) beat Alexander Binda (Ita) 6-1, 6-2; 3-Ilia Simakin beat Mitsuki Wei Kang Leong (Mas) 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(10); Sumit Nagal (Ind) beat 7-Rio Noguchi (Jpn) 6-1, 6-2; Manas Dhamne (Ind) beat Stefanos Sakellaridis (Gre) 6-4, 7-6(4); 4-Oliver Crawford (Gbr) beat Huang Tsung-hao (Tpe) 6-2, 4-6, 6-0; Maks Kasnikowski (Pol) beat Karan Singh (Ind) 6-3, 6-1; Masamichi Imamura (Jpn) beat David Jorda Sanchis (Esp) 7-6(8), 6-4.
Doubles (1st round): 3-Yuta Shimizu-Seita Watanabe (Jpn) beat S D Prajwal Dev-Nitin Kumar Sinha (Ind) 6-4, 7-6(2).
