Miami Open kicks off with men s qualifying round, media day

Miami (US) March 21 (IANS) India s Yuki Bhambri ranked 177th in the world sealed a place in the first round of the Miami Open tennis tournament after beating Sweden s Elias Ymer.

Bhambri defeated world number 133 in straight sets on Tuesday 7-5 6-2 to qualify for the tournament s first round where he will face Bosnia s Mirza Basic ranked 75th by the ATP reports Efe.

Elsewhere in qualifying Thanasis Kokkinakis of Australia saw off the challenge from Japan s Taro Daniel in straight sets 7-5 7-5.

He will face France s Calvin Hemery who came back from a set down to overcome the US s Denis Kudla 4-6 6-4 7-5.

Several higher ranked players were given a bye into the second round including Bulgaria s Grigor Dimitrov and Germany s Alexander Zverev.

The No.4-ranked Bulgarian who received a bye to round two will be hoping to overcome recent illness after a promising showing at the Australian Open where he was knocked out at the quarterfinal stage.

"I m definitely going to lower my expectations a little bit coming into this week. I just haven t played that many matches in the past few weeks " Dimitrov said on Tuesday.

"I m just starting to feel my body good and I m feeling confident. Step-by-step I just want to build my game up and make sure that I m doing the best that I can."

World number 5 Alexander Zverev also has a bye for the first round and was full of praise for former star and current head of men s tennis for the German tennis federation Boris Becker.

"It s great. He s trying to help us all develop as much as we can " Zverev said adding that Becker was particularly helpful with "a lot of tactical stuff how to play different players."

The Miami Open runs until April 1.

--IANS
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