Pune, Feb 22 (PTI) Indian wildcard entry Niki Poonacha pulled off a stunning victory over top seed and compatriot Sumit Nagal to move to the quarterfinals of the ATP Challenger 100 international tournament here on Thursday.
Poonacha joined Sasikumar Mukund in the quarterfinals after he defeated the much-fancied Nagal 6-4, 6-3, their clash lasting over one hour and nine minutes.
In the contest played at the Mahalunge Balewadi Stadium, Nagal was leading 4-2 in the first set before Poonacha came back fighting to level the scores and eventually clinch a famous win for himself to make his first-ever quarterfinal at this level.
In the quarterfinals, Poonacha, who made his debut in India’s recent Davis Cup fixture against Pakistan in Islamabad, will take on seventh-seeded Dave Sweeny from Australia.
Sweeny defeated Poland’s Maks Kasinowski 6-4, 6-1.
Two Indian pairs qualified for the doubles semifinals.
The duo of Arjun Kadhe and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan notched up a 6-4, 7-6 win over Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner of Germany to move into the final four.
Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni, coming off title wins in the Challengers at Chennai and Bengaluru in the last two weeks, recorded their 10th consecutive victory.
They registered a 6-2, 6-7(4), 10-2 victory over the pairing of Duje Ajdukovic (Croatia) and Enrico Dalla Valle (Italy).
Mukund, meanwhile, will take on the third-seeded Australian player Adam Walton in the quarterfinal.
In another singles’ match, Ramanathan was defeated by Russia’s Alexey Zakharov 6-4, 6-4 in the contest lasting one hour and 27 minutes.
Zakharov will now take on Ajdukovic in the quarterfinals, who brushed aside the threat from USA’s Tristan Boyer 6-1, 6-2.
Source: PTI News
