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On a day when four seeds bit the dust, Manish Sureshkumar and Madhwin Kamath of India created ripples with an upset victory each enroute to the quarterfinals of the ITF Davangere Open Men's World Tennis Tour.
In the pre-quarterfinal matches played at the Davangere Tennis Association Davangere courts here on Thursday, 24-year-old Manish edged past third seed Digvijay Pratap Singh in a close encounter 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2) while qualifier Madhwin battled past fourth seed Florent Bax of France 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 6-4 in a match that lasted 3-hours and 13 minutes. In the other upsets of the day, Karan Singh showed sixth seed SD Prajwal Dev the door with a 6-1, 6-4 victory while in a minor upset, winner of the last leg, Ramkumar Ramanathan brushed aside the challenge of seventh seed Rishab Agarwal 6-0, 6-3. While Florent Bax, who had won the Ahmedabad leg of ITF 15K about 9 days ago, had confidence and experience in his armour, former Junior National Champion Madhwin had the determination and resilience. With a break in the fifth game and holding onto his serve, the Indian went 4-2 up but soon Florent, not only levelled at 4 but went ahead 5-4. Both the players traded a break each before the set was decided via tie-breaker with the younger opponent winning at 4. The 21-year-old Madhwin whose roots belong to Mangaluru in Karnataka but lives in Gujarat, capitalised on his rival's mistake and raced to a 5-2 lead. However, he lost his rhythm while on the cusp of grabbing the match as Florent saved two match points before winning the second set which was decided via a tie-breaker. The final set saw Madhwin taking control of the match with a 5-1 lead, courtesy breaks in the first and fifth games. However, the Frenchman clawed back into the game winning three consecutive games and reducing the margin to 4-5 before Madhwin served out for the match. Results (Seeds in parenthesis, Country except India mentioned in brackets) Singles Pre-quarterfinals 8-Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha beat Vishnu Vardhan 7-6 (5), 7-6 (1); 1-Nick Chappell (USA) beat Dev Javia 6-4, 6-4; Karan Singh beat 6-SD Prajwal Dev 6-1, 6-4; Ramkumar Ramanathan beat 7-Rishab Agarwal 6-0, 6-3; 2-Bogdan Bobrov beat Mitsuki Wei Kang Leong (MAS) 6-4, 7-6 (1); 5-Sidharth Rawat beat Q-Adil Kalyanpur 6-2, 6-3; Manish Sureshkumar beat 3-Digvijay Pratap Singh 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2); Q-Madhwin Kamath beat 4-Florent Bax (FRA) 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 6-4. Round of 32 Q-Adil Kalyanpur beat Siddhanth Banthia 7-6 (4), 7-5 Doubles (Quarterfinals) 1-Purav Raja/Ramkumar Ramanathan beat Oges Theyjo Jaya Prakash/Madhwin Kamath 6-4, 6-0; 4-Siddhant Banthia/Vishnu Vardhan beat Manish Ganesh/Suraj R Prabodh 6-3, 6-4; 2-Bogdan Bobrov/Nick Chappell (USA) beat Ishaque Eqbal/Faisal Qamar 6-3, 7-6 (5); 3-Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta/Manish Sureshkumar beat Raghav Jaisinghani/Rishi Reddy 6-3, 6-4. (ANI)
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