Kalaburagi (Karnataka), Nov 30 (PTI) Aryan Shah, the country’s top junior, scripted an upset victory over fourth-seeded Sidharth Rawat in the second round to enter the quarterfinals of the ITF Kalaburagi Open here on Thursday.

The 18-year-old, who made it to the main draw after two tough qualifying rounds, was on the brink of defeat twice but held his nerves to register a hard-fought 4-6, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3) win over Rawat at the Chandrashekhar Patil Stadium.

Apart from Aryan, three other Indians including fifth seed Ramkumar Ramanathan, sixth seed Rishab Agarwal, and Manish Sureshkumar also made it to the last-eight stage.

Second seed Matsuda Ryuki of Japan along with his countrymates Ryotaro Taguchi and Seita Watanabe and seventh seed David Pichler of Austria were the other quarterfinalists.

The Aryan-Sidharth match was expected to be an exciting affair and both began by breaking each other’s serve. The younger opponent took time to settle and committed a few unforced errors and lost serve in the fifth game, which cost him the first set.

The second set too began on a similar note but this time the fourth seed was quick to grab the opportunity and went 3-1 up with another break in the third game.

Serving for the match at 5-4 and two match points up, Sidharth, who is ranked over a 1000 places above Aryan, hit the ball out thrice to lose his serve, which changed the momentum of the match.

Aryan, who had qualified for the US Open junior singles this year, then hit some brilliant down-the-line winners while taking the set into the tie-breaker, where he won 7-4.

In the deciding set, Sidharth, the Indian Davis Cup team member, went 3-2 up and was serving for the match at 5-3. However, Aryan produced three good winners and won the tie-breaker at 3 in a match that lasted two hours and 49 minutes.

In another match, Ramkumar was made to toil by wild card entrant Kabir Hans before registering a 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 win.

Ramkumar, who is just back from an ITF M25 victory, struggled with his game in the initial part of the set as he was 0-3 down and later 2-5 down.

Using his big serve and a strong forehand, the Indian David Cup team member won five games in a row to take the first set.

Achieving a crucial break in the fourth game, Kabir levelled the match scores to 1-1.

Ramkumar, dominating the final set, raced to a 5-0 lead before Kabir put in a semblance of a fight-back by winning the next games but could not stop the senior player from taking the match.

Source: PTI News