October 13, 2008 22:37 IST
India's Rohan Bopanna on Monday qualified for main draw of the $ 125,000 Tashkent ATP Challenger tennis tournament, outplaying Germany's Michael Kohlmann 6-3, 6-7 (7-3), 6-3 at the Olympic Tennis School in Tashkent.
"I'm happy to qualify for the singles event and hope to do better this week," Bopanna said after winning the tussle which lasted for over two hours.
This is Bopanna's first qualification for the singles round since the Newport event where he reached the quarterfinal.
"I was close to making it to the main draw in Thailand Open but lost in the final round qualifying two weeks ago," he said.
In the first round Bopanna will take on Ilia Marchenko of Ukraine. The winner of the match will take on winner of the match between top seed Yen Hsun Lu and former world's top junior Kristian Pless of Denmark.
Among others, Naom Okun of Israel, Oliver Marach of Austria and Nathan Thompson of USA won in contrasting style to qualify for the main draw.
