Pune:
Indian youngster Manish Sureshkumar knocked out 16th seed Japanese Rio Noguchi to move to the pre-quarterfinals while Siddarth Rawat got the better of local favourite Arjun Kadhe at the KPIT MSLTA Challenger, here on Tuesday.
On a day when 11 Indians were in action, the wiry 20-year-old from Chennai, ranked as low as 748, beat the 408th ranked Noguchi 6-3 7-6(4) in a one hour 36 minutes.
Manish took the first set rather easily but Noguchi raced to a 4-2 lead in the second set but the young Indian clawed his way back to close the match by clinching the tie-breaker.
Manish played strongly in the tie break and hit two great forehand winners to seal the win, ensuring himself seven ATP points.
Qualifier and former national champion Dalwinder Singh proved strong for compatriot Kunal Anand, winning 6-3 6-4 while Kaza Vinayak Sharma who made it to the main draw as an Alternate rode his luck to conquer qualifier Tejas Chaukulkar 7-6(1) 6-7(5) 6-4 in the longest match of the day lasting 2 hours and 16 minutes.
Rawat played solid tennis to oust 6-2 3-6 6-3 in one hour 40 minutes. Both players matched each other but a shoulder issue hurt Kadhe’s chances.
Greece’s Markos Kalovelonis outhit Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-2 6-4 while Tunisian Aziz Dougaz stopped a late comeback from up and coming Adil Kalyanpur 6-3, 7-6(3).
