Suresh continues to impress at the ITF men’s pre-quarterfinals

The wiry Suresh Dhakshineswar continued to impress as he sustained his strong run by easing past Ishaque Eqbal 6-3, 6-3 in the pre-quarterfinals of the $15,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on Thursday.

The 21-year-old Dhakshineswar, who came through three rounds of qualifying event, has already beaten five good players, dropping a solitary set.

The wiry Suresh Dhakshineswar continued to impress as he sustained his strong run by easing past Ishaque Eqbal 6-3, 6-3 in the pre-quarterfinals of the $15,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on Thursday.

The 21-year-old Dhakshineswar, who came through three rounds of qualifying event, has already beaten five good players, dropping a solitary set. For one playing his first professional tournament after a year, Dhakshineswar served and stroked with ease on a hot afternoon to snuff the challenge from Ishque who had beaten the second seed in the first round.

There is a certain calmness about the young lad who is part of the training group in Chennai with the former Asian Games and Commonwealth Games champion Somdev Devvarman.

In the quarterfinals, Dhakshineswar will challenge SD Prajwal Dev who handled the athletic game of Yan Wojcik with composure and competence in a three set thriller.

Davis Cup reserve Digvijay Pratap Singh asserted his strong physical game, as much as the ability to stay focused in tough weather conditions, as he turned the match around after losing the first set to Maks Kasnikowski of Poland.

Nitin Kumar Sinha exasperated Alexis Canter of Britain in sailing to a 6-2, 6-4 victory. He will face former national champion, a wiry left-hander who whips the ball with considerable relish, Siddharth Vishwakarma.

The results:

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Sidharth Rawat bt Dev Javia 6-1, 6-1; Enzo Wallart (Fra) bt Dostanbek Tashbulatov (Kaz) 6-3, 6-4; Siddharth Vishwakarma bt Madhwin Kamath 6-3, 7-5; Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Alexis Canter (GBR) 6-2, 6-4; Digvijay Pratap Singh bt Maks Kasnikowski (Pol) 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-1; Manish Sureshkumar bt Faisal Qamar 5-2 (retired); SD Prajwal Dev bt Yann Wojcik (Pol) 6-1, 3-6, 7-5; Suresh Dhakshineswar bt Ishaque Eqbal 6-3, 6-3. Doubles (quarterfinals): Anirudh Chandrasekar & Vishnu Vardhan bt Maks Kasnikowski & Yann Wojcik (Pol) 3-6, 6-4, [13-11]; Enzo Wallart (Fra) & Rishab Agarwal bt Julian Cash (GBR) & Robert Strombachs (Ger) 6-7(4), 6-3, [11-9]; Ishaque Eqbal & Dalwinder Singh w.o. Faisal Qamar & Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam; Yuki Bhambri & Saketh Myneni bt Nitin Kumar Sinha & Parikshit Somani 7-5, 4-6, [10-4].