Bengaluru, May 13: Home grown talent Kriish Tyagi and Manish Sureshkumar kept the Indian hopes intact as they entered their maiden ATP Challenger quarterfinals even as the top seeds stayed on course in the Karnataka Open ATP Challenger at the SM Krishna Tennis Stadium here on Wednesday.
The 19-year-old Kriish, a Bengaluru boy who grew up at the KSLTA courts and dreamt of playing on the centre court here, produced one of the major upset of the tournament when he defeated Japan’s Yuta Kawahashi 6-4, 6-4 in the pre-quarterfinals.
Ranked 1322 in the world, Kriish came into the match as a clear underdog against the 637th-ranked Japanese player but played with remarkable confidence in front of the home crowd. Backed by vocal support from family, friends and local tennis enthusiasts, the youngster showcased fearless shot-making and a booming serve backed with a strong forehand to record of the biggest wins of his career thus far.
Kriish hammered eight aces compared to Kawahashi’s two and controlled large parts of the contest with aggressive baseline play. The Business and Finance student at Texas A&M University in the United States, could have closed out the match more comfortably but for his 33 unforced errors against the Japanese player’s 25.
The Indian secured the crucial break in the third game of the opening set and held firm to take it 6-4. He looked in complete command early in the second set, breaking Kawahashi in the first, third and fifth games to open up a huge lead. Though the Japanese player fought back with breaks in the second and sixth games, Kriish regained his composure at the right time to complete a memorable straight-set victory and enter his maiden Challenger quarterfinal.
Manish Sureshkumar too advanced to his maiden Challenger quarterfinal after Britain’s Alastair Gray retired due to giddiness while trailing 4-6, 2-3. Manish had taken the opening set with steady baseline play and was leading in the second before the Briton was unable to continue.
Second seed Hamish Stewart of Great Britain ended Mukund Sasikumar’s campaign with a clinical 6-4, 6-4 win, while top seed Keegan Smith of the USA recovered from a set down to defeat Czech Republic’s Dominik Palan 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Fifth seed Ognjen Milic of Serbia rallied to beat Australia’s Joshua Charlton 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, while former world No. 40 Ilya Ivashka was in dominant form against Japan’s Kokoro Isomura, winning 6-1, 6-2.
Thailand’s seventh seed Maximus Jones survived a gruelling two-hour and 44-minute battle against Israel’s Amit Vales to prevail 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-4. Fourth seed Philip Sekulic of Australia cruised past American qualifier Christopher Papa 6-2, 6-3.
Results (Pre-fix denotes seedings, country in parenthesis)
Men’s singles (Pre-quarterfinals)
2-Hamish Stewart (GBR) bt Mukund Sasikumar (IND) 6-4, 6-4;
5-Ognjen Milic (SRB) bt Joshua Charlton (AUS) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3;
1-Keegan Smith (USA) bt Dominik Palan (CZE) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4;
Ilya Ivashka bt Kokoro Isomura (JPN) 6-1, 6-2;
7-Maximus Jones (THA) bt Amit Vales (ISR) 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-4: (2 hrs 44 mins)
Manish Sureshkumar (IND) bt Q-Alastair Gray (GBR) 6-4, 3-2 (retd);
WC-Kriish Tyagi (IND) bt Yuta Kawahashi (JPN) 6-4, 6-4
4-Philip Sekulic (AUS) bt Q-Christopher Papa (USA) 6-2, 6-3;
Men’s Doubles (Pre-Quarterfinals)
Petr Bar Biryukov / Grigoriy Lomakin (KAZ) bt Moerani Bouzige (AUS) / Omar Jasika (AUS) 7-6 (5), 6-3;
1-S D Prajwal Dev (IND) / Nitin Kumar Sinha (IND) bt Tomohiro Masabayashi (JPN) / Leo Vithoontien (JPN) 3-6, 7-6 (5), 10-7;
3-Sergey Betov / Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) bt Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta (IND) / Yamato Sueoka (JPN) 7-5, 7-5;
Dominik Palan (CZE) / Digvijaypratap Singh (IND) bt 2-Charles Barry (IRL)/ Joshua Charlton (AUS) 6-4, 6-4;
Adil Kalyanpur (IND) / Mukund Sasikumar (IND) bt ATL-K Lee (TPE) /M Leong (MAS) 6-2, 0-6, 10-8;
Jeffrey Chuan En Hsu (TPE) / Christopher Papa (USA) bt WC-Kabir Hans (IND) / Maan Kesharwani (IND) 7-5, 6-4.
4-Kokoro Isomura (JPN) / Ryuki Matsuda (JPN) Vs Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND) / Saketh Myneni (IND) (in progress)
