Tennis: Seeds sail into Mysuru Open quarters

top eight seeds in the Sobha ITF Mysuru Open tennis tournament took their appointed places in the quarter-finals of the men’s singles here on Wednesday.

Karnataka’s Suraj Prabodh was perhaps the unluckiest player of the day. Playing at the top of his game, the Mysuru boy matched the big-hitting Vishnu Vardhan with some wise and sensible tennis to claim the first set via a lengthy tie-breaker at 12-10.

The second set that was interrupted by rain when scores were 4-3 in favour of Suraj, the games going with serve. On resumption after a 90-minute break, the players made it 5-all.

In the 11th game, Suraj appeared ill at ease but hung on until deuce and conceded the next point when he collapsed due to cramps. With the physio attending to him courtside and the time ticking, the second set was awarded to Vishnu. Suraj tried to continue, but found it impossible and conceded the tie.

Top seed Ramkumar Ramnathan was given a wake up call by Sidarth Rawat who claimed the first set before the Indian Davis Cupper shrugged off the indifference to claim the next two.

In doubles play, the top seeded pair of Ramnathan and Ranjeet Virali Murugesan conceded their quarter-final match with the latter aggravating a troublesome knee. The Indian duo was trailing 1-2 against the Indo-Taipei pair of Sasi Kumar Mukund and Jui-Chen Hung.

Results (Prefix denotes seeding, Indian unless stated):

Singles (Second round): 5-Mohit Mayur Prakash bt Shotaro Goto (Jpn) 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-1; 7-Vinayak Sharma Kaza bt Rishab Agarwal 6-0, 6-1; 3-Ranjeet Virali Murugesan bt SD Prajwal Dev 6-3, 6-2; 6-Jui-Chen Hung (Tpe) bt Lakshit Sood 6-4, 6-1; 2-Karunuday Singh bt Anvit Bendre 6-1, 6-3; 4-Sasi Kumar Mukund bt Rashein Samuel 6-2, 7-5; 1-Ramkumar Ramnathan bt Sidarth Rawat 4-6, 6-4, 6-2; 8-Vishnu Vardhan bt Suraj Prabodh 6-7 (10), 7-5 (Retd).

Doubles (Quarter-finals): Bhavesh Gour / Sidarth Rawat vs Jayesh Pungliya 3-6 (match suspended); A2-MM Jayaprakash / Vinayak Kaza bt Sagar Ahuja / Jatin Dahiya 6-1, 6-4; 4-Chandril / Lakshit Sood bt Rohit Bhatia / Maninder Singh 7-6(2), 6-1; Jui-Chen Hung (Tpe) / Sasi Kumar Mukund bt 1-Ramkumar Ramnathan / Ranjeet Virali Murugesan 2-1 (Retd).