News

Tournament top seed Adrian Menendez-Maceiras of Spain coasted into the last 16 of the Air Asia Open at the KSLTA Courts with a convincing straight sets victory over qualifier Petros Chrysochos of Cyprus 6-4, 6-4 in the first round.

Taking onto Center Court in the second match of the day, the Spaniard broke his lower ranked opponent in the very first game of the contest.

The World 132 ranked player was on roll and suddenly lost concentration to be broken in the sixth game to level game scores. However, the Spaniard scolded himself and came back strongly to earn a break in the very next game to win the first set.

Second set saw the Spaniard not letting his guard down and after breaking the Cyprus player in the first game, was content to hold serve to pocket the set and match.

No 5 seed Yannick Mertens of Belgium raced away to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Indian N Vijay Sundar Prashanth and No 6 Ti Chen of Chinese Taipei did not raise much of a sweat brushing aside the challenge of Uzbekistan qualifier Temur Ismailov 6-2, 6-4.

In what can be termed an upset, Indian qualifier Prajnesh Gunneswaran demolished former Indian National champion and wild card entrant Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash 6-3, 6-4.

TOP SEEDS OUSTED

In doubles play, the tournament top seeds Maximillian Neuchrist of Austria and India’s Diviji Sharan were sent packing by the unseeded Uzbek-Cyprus pair of Petros Chrysochos and Temur Ismailov through the Super Tie-breaker.

The top seeds won the first set tie-break at 3 before seeing their unseeded opponents raising the level of their game to not just challenge them but rally back to force the Super Tie-Break.

The top seeds did have their chance when they came back from 0-4 to be 5-6, but Petros and Temur sealed victory with gritty tennis.

Former Olympian and Davis Cupper Vishnu Vardhan of India paired up with Wimbledon Junior doubles crown winner Sumil Nagal and scripted a wonderful victory to storm into the last eight.

After losing the first set to the Czech-Russian pair of Michal Konecny and Alexander Kudryavtsev 4-6, the Indian pair rallied brilliantly to win the second set tie-break at 4 and clinched the decider 10-6.

In an all Indian affair where both the teams earned Wild Cards, the Sood brothers Chandril and Lakshit bested Somdev Devvarman and Christopher Marquis 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2).