Indian Davis Cup winner Saketh Myneni has made it to the singles draw of the US open with a victory win over Serbia’s Pedja Krstin. On Friday he won 6-3 6-0 in the final Qualifying round. It will be the first time that the unseeded Indian will play in the singles main draw of a Grand Slam and face Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic in the first round.
Saketh ranked 143rd in the ATP chart will see himself pitted against World No-1 and defending champion Novak Djokovic in the second round, if only he can cross the first hurdle.
Saketh Myneni progress in the US Open
It took just 56 minutes for the 143rd ranked in the ATP chart to defeat his Serbian opponent who is placed 57 places below in the chart. The Indian player simply played an astonishing round and was at his best against the opponent.
Before this, the Davis cupper moved to the second set of the US open Qualifiers with an easy victory over Albano Olivetti. He dismissed the Frenchman 6-3 7-5 in one hour and 11 minutes. Not only did he break his rival twice in the match but saved all break points he faced. He comfortably closed the contest in which he won 72 points to 54 of his opponents.
After this, he advanced to the final Qualifying round with a 7-6 6-4 win over local lad Mitchell Krueger. It was a tight first set where the Indian player recovered from an early break to make it 4-4. In the second set, it was Myneni who performed his best and served out the match in the 10th after battling for one hour and thirty minutes
In the next round he will face world number 48 Jiri Vesely, if Saketh survives the round, he will face World Number 1 and top seed of the tournament Novak Djokovic.
His performance between 2015-2016
So far the big-serving Indian has lost in the third qualifying round at the Australian Open and bowed out in the second series of the French Open. The 28-year-old from Andhra Pradesh follows Yuki Bhambri stint as an Indian playing on the main draw of a Grand Slam. In the first round of Australian Open 2015, Bhambri lost to Andy Murray.
Currently, he is India’s No-2 ranked singles player.