ITF WTT Cup tennis: Top seed Sidharth Rawat upset, 4 Indians progress

PUNE: Dalibor Svrcina of Czech Republic upset top seed SidharthRawat 6-4, 6-1 even as four other Indians progressed to the second round at the $15,000 ITF WTT Cup men's tennis championships here on Wednesday.

In a match lasting one hour and 28 minutes, DaliborSvrcina broke Rawat in the fifth game of the opening set to record a 6-4, 6-1 win and advance to the round of 16.

Seventh seeded and newly crowned ArjunKadhe survived some anxious moments in the second set to get past compatriot S.D. PrajwalDev 6-3, 7-6(3). Sixth seeded Manish Sureshkumar carved out a credible 6-1, 6-4 win over Italian Lorenzo Bocchi in a match between qualifiers.

Seasoned N. Vijay SundarPrashanth stopped the winning run of Faisal Qamar 6-4, 6-2 while another qualifier, IshaqueEqbal, won the first set as the higher ranked Swiss, Luca Castelnuovo, retired in the second set at 2-0 due to an arm injury. This ensured four Indians entered the round of 16.

In the other matches featuring Indians, eighth seeded Zane Khan of the USA outpoweredAbhinavShanmugam 6-2, 6-0 while another Czech Republic player, Dominick Palan, was troubled in the first set but then subdued RanjeetVirali-Murugesan 7-6(6), 6-1. Fourth seeded Oliver Crawford of the USA outplayed Wildcard Atharva Sharma of India 6-1, 6-0, and second seeded Irishman Simon Carr was given a tough fight by wildcard DhruvSunish before winning 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 in just over two hours.

Third seeded Briton Aidan Mchugh was made to fight by qualifier Omni Kumar of the USA before winning 6-2, 7-6(4). (IANS)

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