Chennai Open ATP Challenger 2025: Kirkin gets walkover after Vesely retires in first round

Chennai Open ATP Challenger 2025: Kirkin gets walkover after Vesely retires in first round

Jiri Vesely (Czech Republic) had a brief bout of nausea, took a pill, and was squeezed for effort, by his opponent Ergi Kirkin (Turkey), as he walked out, seemingly because of dehydration, to concede a walkover win, 7-6(7), 6(3)-7, in the first round of the Chennai Open ATP Challenger at the SDAT tennis stadium here on Wednesday.

Either of them broke once each in the match. Vesely broke in the first game before Kirkin broke back to make it 4-4. Vesely hit an ace to save a set point on 4-5, stretching it to a tie-break.

Kirkin rallied from 2-5 to draw level 5-5 and went on to lead 7-6, but Vesely hit a couple of forehand crosscourt winners in the box and a backhand crosscourt winner to clinch the tie-break.

The second set and the ensuing tie-break were similarly neck-and-neck. In the tie-break, Kirkin came back from 0-2 to make it 2-2 before a couple of unforced errors from Vesely and a forehand crosscourt volley in between helped him lead 5-2. From 5-3, Kirkin closed it out 7-3 as Vesely made a couple of unforced errors.

As they retired for a break, Vesely declared that he was walking out.

“Mentally, it was tough, because I was so close. I also had a set point at 5-4, and he hit an ace. It was tough to lose that set because then I thought I had a long way to go – that I had to win maybe two long sets. But it felt that I was better (than his opponent) physically,” said Kirkin after the match.

Second round: Elias Ymer (Swe) bt Jay Clarke (GBR) 7-5, 7-6(2); Rio Noguchi (Jpn) bt Jacopo Berrettini (Ita) 7-5, 6-3.

First round: Alexis Galarneau (Can) bt Egor Agafonov 6-4, 6-1; Ergi Kirkin (Tur) bt Jiri Vesely (Cze) 6(7)-7, 7-6(3) (retd.); Oleksandr Ovcharenko (Ukr) bt Zsombor Piros (Hun) 7-6(4), 6-4.