By Kirti Patil
Pune: Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha justified the organisers Decision of awarding him a qualifying Wildcard as he became the Lone Indian out of eight Indian players in action to move into the final round qualifying of the PMR Open ATP Challenger 100 Men’s international tennis championships sponsored by PMRDA and organised by the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) at the Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Tennis Stadium here on Sunday.
The 719th ranked Poonacha carved out a close 6-7(7-5),6-4,6-4 win over former World No 4 Junior and 358th ranked and sixth seeded Frenchman Giovanni Mpetsshi Perricard in exactly 2 hours to move into the final round qualifying.
The other Indians in fray went down without any fight in the home conditions. Second seeded Serbian Nikola Milojevic rallied to beat Digvijaypratap Singh 6-1,7-5.Russian Alibek Kachmazov, seeded fourth proved too experienced for young wildcard Chirag Duhan winning 6-3, 6-3.
Seventh Seeded Yunseong Chung of Korea outplayed another wildcard Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-2, 6-2.Eighth seeded Carlos Sanchez Jover overpowered local boy and winner of the local wildcard event Nishit Rahane 6-1, 6-; while Colin Sinclair served out alternate entrant S. D. Prajwal Dev 6-3, 6-4. Australian Dayne Kelly was too strong for Siddharth Rawat winning 6-3, 6-2.
Benjamin Lock of Zimbabwe came back strongly from a set down to quell Manish Sureshkumar 2-6, 6-1,6-1.
The Results:
First Qualifying Round:
1-Jay Clarke (GBR) bt Arthur Weber (FRA) 7-6(7-3), 6-2.
2-Nikola Milojevic (SRB) bt Digvijaypratap Singh (IND) 6-1,7-5
Akira Santillan (AUS) bt 3-Jason Jung (TPE)6-4,1-1(Retd)
4-Alibek Kachmazov (RUS)(4) bt (wc-Chirag Duhan (IND) 6-3, 6-wc-Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND) bt 6- GiovanniMpetshi Perricard (FRA) 6-7(7-5),6-4,6-4
7-Yunseong Chung(KOR)bt wc-Nitin Kumar Sinha (IND) 6-2,6-2
8-Carlos Sanchez Jover(ESP)bt wc-Nishit Rahane (IND) 6-1, 6-1
11-Dominik Palan(CZE)(11) bt Petr Nouza (CZE)6-3, 6-4
Colin Sinclair(NMI) bt SD Prajwal Dev (IND) 6-3,6-4
Benjamin Lock(ZIM) bt Manish Sureshkumar (IND)2-6, 6-1,6-1
Dayne Kelly(AUS) bt Siddharth Rawat (IND) 6-3, 6-2
Makoto Ochi (JPN) bt Calum Puttergill (AUS) 6-1, 6-2.
