Pune: India’s Manish Sureshkumar caused the upset of the day as he knocked out 16th seeded Japan’s Rio Noguchi 6-3,7-6(4) in an exciting match on Court One.
On a day where 10 Indian players were in action, including three all-Indian affairs, four made it to the next round on day two at the KPIT MSLTA Challenger at the Mhalunge Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune, on Tuesday.
Home hope and India player Arjun Kadhe made a brief comeback but could not resist a spirited effort from Sidharth Rawat, losing out 2-6 6-3 3-6.
Sureshkumar started strongly and clinched the first set 6-3. He had his back against the wall in the second set with his opponent looking set to force a deciding set, but Sureshkumar rallied back from 2-4 down in the set to eventually win the tie-break with a forehand winner and sealed the match in an hour and 36 minutes. After an easy outing on Monday, Sureshkumar showed his range in the round of 32 match on Tuesday.
Qualifier Dalwinder Singh proved strong for countryman Kunal Anand to win 6-3 6-4. In an enthralling all-Indian affair on Court Two, Vinayak Sharma Kaza had enough left in the tank to edge Pune’s Tejas Chaukulkar 7-6(1),6-7(5),6-4. Kaza, who made it to the main draw as an alternate, made the most of his fortunes and held his nerve when it mattered most.
Meanwhile, N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth and Adil Kalyanpur fell short in their round of 64 matches.
Second seed, Australia’s James Duckworth started off his campaign with a 6-3 7-6(3) win over Ukranian Danylo Kalenichenko in the last match on Center Court.
Great Britain’s Jay Clarke, seeded fifth in this tournament, and who has made Grand Slam main draw appearances, saw off Calvin Hemery 6-4 6-4 on Center Court. Hemery started in an impressive manner, making a string of winners early on. Clarke responded with a couple of backhand winners to break serve against run of play for 3-2 and then held on to win the set. The second set saw multiple breaks of serve from both players, but Clarke used his experience and upped his game at the right time to prevail.
Wednesday’s action involves most of the top Indian players in this tournament, with the likes of Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sumit Nagal, Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Saketh Myneni all set to take to the courts. Nagal takes on wildcard Aryan Goveas who is high on confidence after his win on Monday in what promises to be an exciting contest.
Results (day 2)
Singles
5-Jay Clarke (Gbr) bt Calvin Hemery (Fra) 6-4, 6-4; Manish Sureshkumar (Ind) bt 16-Rio. Noguchi (Jpn) 6-3,7-6 (4); 11-Shuichi Sekiguchi (Jpn) bt Roman Blokhin (Rus) 6-3,6-0
Round 1: Dhruv Sunish (Ind) bt Sumizawa Daisuke (Jpn) 7-6 (3) 6-2; Markos Kalovelonis (Gre) bt N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (Ind) 6-2,6-4; (Q) Dalwinder Singh (Ind) bt Kunal Anand (Ind) 6-3,6-4; Ergi Kirkin (Tur) bt David Pichler (Aut)1-6, 7-5, 6-2; Kaza Vinayak Sharma (Ind) bt (Q) Tejas Chaukulkar (Ind) 7-6 (1), 6-7 (5), 6-4; Aziz Dougaz (Tun) bt Adil Kalyanpur (Ind) 6-3, 7-6 (3).
Doubles:
A. Dougaz (Tun) and C. Hemery (Fra) bt D. Mulye (USA) and D. Marrero (Esp) 6-2, 7-5; R. Ortega Olmedo (Esp) and S. Diez (Can) bt E. Kirkin (Tur) and C. Ilkel (Tur) 6-2, 6-2; N. Prashanth (Ind) and B. Klein (Gbr) bt D. Sunish (Ind) and A. Goveas (Ind) 6-2, 6-1; B. Bobrov (Rus) and I. Nedelko (Rus) bt T. Khabibulin (Kaz) and M. Kalovelonis (Gre) 6-4, 6-7, 10-3.