Nagpur: Young Indian players Manish Sureshkumar and Arjun Kadhe provided a silver lining on a otherwise gloomy day as they came back from loss of the first set to recover and reach the men’s singles quarterfinals at the $15,000 KPIT-MSLTA ITF WTT Cup Men’s Tennis Championships, being organized by MSLTA in association with Deccan Gymkhana and played at their tennis courts in Pune on Thursday.
In the men’s singles second round played on Thursday, sixth seeded Manish Sureshkumar came back from loss of the first set to scrape past a fighting junior Zsombor Velcz of Hungary 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 In a 3-hour 9-minute battle.
Local boy and national champion Arjun Kadhe came back from loss in the opening set and lost numerous breakpoint opportunities to down Czech Republic’s Dominik Palan 1-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(5) in a battle lasting nearly 3 hours. It was a hard-fought win for the seventh seed which cheered the local fans.
Manish SureshKumar was down 0-3 in the third set against the 18-year-old ITF junior player before coming back strongly to win the set 6-4 and enter the quarter-final. He will meet qualifier Henry Patten of Great Britain for a spot in the last four on Friday.
In the quarters, Kadhe will clash with fourth seed Oliver Crawford of USA, who battled past a fighting Indian junior Dev Javia winning 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 in an hour and 58-minute match.
In the other matches featuring Indian players, winner of two previous legs at Lucknow and Indore, Zane Khan of USA quelled a late challenge of qualifier N Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-3, 7-5.
Third seeded Aidan Mchugh of Great Britain stopped the good run of qualifier Ishaque Eqbal winning 6-1, 6-3. While fifth seeded Jonathan Mridha of Sweden came back from 3-5 in the decider to stave off a challenge from qualifier Paras Dahiya, registering a 6-1, 5-7, 7-5 win.
Qualifier Henry Patten of Great Britain stopped giant-killer Dalibor Svrcina of Czech Republic 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, while second seeded Irishman Simon Carr carved out a 6-2, 7-6(7) win over Filip Bergevi of Sweden.
RESULTS
Men’s singles (Round 2)
2-Simon Carr (IRL) bt Filip Bergevi (SWE) 6-2, 7-6(7)
3-Aidan Mchugh (GBR) bt Q-Ishaque Eqbal (IND) 6-1, 6-3
5-Jonathan Mridha (SWE) bt Q-Paras Dahiya (IND) 6-1, 5-7, 7-5
6-Manish Sureshkumar (IND) bt Zsombor Velcz (HUN) 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4
7-Arjun Kadhe (IND) bt Dominik Palan (CZE) 1-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(5)
8-Zane Khan (USA) bt Q-N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) 6-3, 7-5
Q-Henry Patten (GBR) bt Dalibor Svrcina (CZE) 4-6, 6-4, 6-1
4-Oliver Crawford (USA) bt Dev Javia (IND) 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.
Men’s doubles (Quarter-finals)
Anvit Bendre (IND)/Parikshit Somani (IND) bt 10-SD Prajwal Dev (IND)/Nitin Kumar Sinha (IND) 6-7, 6-4, 10-7
Zane Khan (USA)/Dalibor Svrcina (CZE) bt 3-Filip Bergevi (SWE)/Jonathan Mridha (SWE) 6-1, 6-4
Simon Carr (IRL)/Alexander Kotzen (USA) bt Faisal Qamar (IND)/Dhruv Sunish (IND) 5-7, 6-1, 10-6.
