Mandya, Jan 11 – As many as three Indians entered the quarterfinals of Men’s singles in the ITF Mandya Open in contrasting styles at the PET Stadium here on Thursday.
Qualifier Madhwin Kamath advanced to the last eight by overcoming an effervescent Yunseok Jang of Korea who had to pull out after suffering a hamstring pull. The Korean who had felled 8th seed SD Prajwal in the first round, was trailing 2-3 in the final set after both the players had won a set each.
Siddharth Vishwakarma overcame a fighting Manish Sureshkumar in a tough encounter 7-5, 6-4. Earlier, Manish had created the biggest flutter of the tournament thus far when he had shown second seed Giles Hussey of Great Britain the door with a 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-1 victory in a first round match which was postponed overnight due to bad light.
Karan Singh became the third Indian to qualify after defeating country mate Ishaque Eqbal 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 to set up a clash with the top seed Kris Van Wyk of South Africa, who quashed the hopes of local favourite Manish Ganesh in straight sets 6-0, 6-4.
India’s top ranked and fourth seeded Sasikumar Mukund, squandered away a few chances before bowing out of the event with a 6-2, 6-7 (3), 3-6 loss to Netherland’s Jelle Sels.
Madhwin who had played two tough qualifying rounds to make to the main draw had won against Grigoriy Lomakin of Kazakhstan in his opening round. Today, the 22-year-old who has his roots from Karnataka, Madhwin lost his serve in the very first game which eventually cost him the first set.
The lad from Ahmedabad, broke Jang’s serve in the second game itself and went 3-0 up after holding his own serve. Madhwin played with renewed confidence as he moved on the court swiftly and came up with some good cross court winners.
However, the 20-year-old Korean was quick to restore parity after breaking his rival’s serve in the 5th game after a long battle and even went 5-4 up after one more break in the 9th game.
However, Madhwin won three games in a row with two breaks in the 10th and 12th game to take the second set 7-5. In the decider, the Indian was leading 3-2 after both the players had held their respective serves when Jang pulled his hamstring and could not carry on.
Meanwhile, only one quarterfinal match could be completed in the doubles while three other matches were postponed to Friday morning owing to bad light.
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