Mumbai, November 14: Seventh-seeded Karan Singh emerged as the lone Indian to enter the semifinals at the MSLTA 25K Men’s ITF Tennis Tournament, organized by the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) and played at the G.A. Ranade Tennis Court.
The 21-year-old Karan Singh, riding high on confidence, quelled the challenge of former Olympian and qualifier Vishnu Vardhan with a 7-6(6), 6-2 victory in a match lasting 1 hour and 34 minutes. The 31-year-old Vardhan had a set point in the first set but served a double fault to squander the advantage, eventually capitulating tamely in the second set.
With this win, Karan secured himself a top-500 entry in the world rankings. He will next face second-seeded Dalibor Šverčina of the Czech Republic, the winner of the Bhubaneswar ITF event. Šverčina registered an easy 6-4, 6-0 victory over Russian Egor Agafonov.
Top-seeded Khumoyun Sultanov of Uzbekistan was tested by junior player Adhithya Ganesan of the USA before prevailing 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a match lasting 2 hours and 25 minutes. The 26-year-old Sultanov, the Uzbek No. 1, will now take on fifth-seeded Russian Bogdan Bobrov in the semifinals. Bobrov took just 1 hour and 19 minutes to end the winning run of wildcard entrant Nitin Kumar Sinha, with a comfortable 6-3, 6-1 victory.
In the doubles event, the young pair of Aryan Shah and Adhithya Ganesan caused a major upset by defeating top seeds Egor Agafonov and Bogdan Bobrov of Russia 7-6(0), 6-1 in the semifinals. In the final, Shah and Ganesan will face the second-seeded Indian duo of S.D. Prajwal Dev and Adil Kalyanpur, who secured a 7-5, 6-3 win over Indonesia’s M. Rifqi Fitriadi and Korea’s Jang Yunseok.
Singles: Quarterfinal Results
- Khumoyun Sultanov (UZB) [1] defeated Adhithya Ganesan (USA) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
- Bogdan Bobrov (RUS) [5] defeated (WC) Nitin Kumar Sinha (IND) 6-3, 6-1
- Karan Singh (IND) [7] defeated Vishnu Vardhan (IND) 7-6(6), 6-2
- Dalibor Svrcina (CZE) [2] defeated Egor Agafonov (RUS) [6] 6-4, 6-0
Doubles: Semifinal Results
- Aryan Shah (IND)/Adhithya Ganesan (USA) defeated Egor Agafonov (RUS)/Bogdan Bobrov (RUS) [1] 7-6(0), 6-1
- S.D. Prajwal Dev (IND)/Adil Kalyanpur (IND) [2] defeated M. Rifqi Fitriadi (INA)/Jang Yunseok (KOR) 7-5, 6-3