Karnataka Open | Tyagi and Manish move into the last eight

Kriish Tyagi and Manish Sureshkumar kept the Indian hopes high with victories in the round-of-16 of the Karnataka Open ATP Challenger at the S.M. Krishna Tennis Stadium here on Wednesday. It was a milestone moment for the two as they entered a Challenger quarterfinal for the first time.

Wild card entrant Tyagi posted a fluent 6-4, 6-4 win over Japan’s Yuta Kawahashi. The 19-year-old, fairly new to the senior ranks, showed good composure in the crunch points and excelled with a strong forehand, hitting down-the-line winners at will.

Manish overcame qualifier Alastair Gray, who retired midway through the second set due to an illness. Manish’s dependable groundstrokes helped him win the first set 6-4, before his opponent began to wane. Gray struggled to chase the ball down, bringing a premature end to the match.

Earlier, Mukund Sasikumar went down to second seed Hamish Stewart 4-6, 4-6.

The results (round-of-16): Hamish Stewart (GBr) bt Mukund Sasikumar 6-4, 6-4; Ognjen Milic (Srb) bt Joshua Charlton (Aus) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3; Keegan Smith (USA) bt Dominik Palan (Cze) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4; Ilya Ivashka bt Kokoro Isomura (Jpn) 6-1, 6-2; Maximus Jones (Tha) bt Amit Vales (Isr) 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-4; Manish Sureshkumar bt Alastair Gray (GBr) 6-4, 3-2 retd.; Kriish Tyagi bt Yuta Kawahashi (Jpn) 6-4, 6-4; Philip Sekulic (Aus) bt Christopher Papa (USA) 6-2, 6-3.