India, May 3 -- Manas Dhamne, India's promising tennis talent, had to give a speech at the post-tournament presentation ceremony on Sunday. It's not something the soft-spoken 18-year-old is too used to doing. Certainly not at the ATP Challenger level.

He was speaking as the runner-up after his first Challenger final, at the ATP 50 Shymkent clay-court tournament in Kazakhstan. The 444th-ranked Indian lost to the 320th-ranked Belgian Buvaysar Gadamauri 7-6(6), 6-4.

This was a solid run, however, by the young Indian who is only starting to compete more frequently on the Challenger circuit. The final show is set to make Dhamne jump to a career high 384 in the updated rankings on Monday and become the new India No.2 in men's singles.

Battli...