Bengaluru: Karan Singh earned his place in the singles main draw of the Bengaluru Open ATP Challenger event with a hard-fought 6-4, 7-6(6) victory over Aryan Shah in an all-Indian second-round clash in the Qualifying event at the KSLTA Courts here on Monday.
Singh, who made his Davis Cup debut for India during the World Group I Playoffs tie against Togo, displayed composure in a tense second-set tiebreak to wrap up the match against his talented compatriot in one hour and 15 minutes in the ATP Challenger 125 tournament.
With this win, Karan made it to the main draw of India’s biggest ATP Challenger Tour event with a prize pool of USD 200,000, the winner of which will earn 125 valuable ATP ranking points. The hard-court tournament is being organized by the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA). The final round of qualifying also delivered a big upset, with the top-seed and Delhi Open finalist Billy Harris crashing out, following a 6-7(4) 4-6 defeat against Petr Bar Biryukov. However, second seed Ilia Simakin breezed past Japan’s Kokoro Isomura in just 48 minutes, winning 6-1, 6-1.
India’s Mukund Sasikumar was unable to join Singh in the main draw, falling to Czech Republic’s Hynek Barton in a gruelling 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 battle. Meanwhile, Spain’s Nicolas Alvarez Varona secured his spot with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over Hiroki Moriya.
With the main draw now set, Karan Singh will face Austria’s Jurij Rodionov in the first round. His Davis Cup teammate Ramkumar Ramanathan, meanwhile, is set for a challenging opener against seventh seed Shintaro Mochizuki (JPN), while teenager Manas Dhamne faces Biryukov.
In the early main draw Round of 32 results, Colombia’s Nicolas Mejia caused an upset by knocking out fourth seed Elmer Moller 6-3, 6-4, while Japan’s Rio Noguchi advanced with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Justin Engel. Wild card SD Prajwal Dev exited in the first round after this three-set loss to Marek Gengel, while Blake Ellis progressed with a (2)6-7, 6-4, 7-6(6) win over Michael Geerts. IANS
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