ITF India F1 Futures: Niki Poonacha beats fifth seed Arthur Weber to enter quarterfinals

In the quarterfinals, Niki will play Jacob Bradshaw of Australia who fired 14 aces on his way to a 6-7(10), 6-2, 6-1 victory over Karan Singh.

File Photo: It was intense battle between the two, but Niki had stepped up his game after losing the first set. He did well to save seven of eight break points in the match. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Niki Poonacha served big at the crunch to pull through to a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory over fifth seed Arthur Weber of France in the pre-quarterfinals of the $25,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on Thursday.

Niki served four aces from 4-5 in the decider, two each in his two service games, while Weber delivered two double faults in dropping serve in the 11th game. Till then, it was intense battle between the two, but Niki had stepped up his game after losing the first set. He did well to save seven of eight break points in the match.

In the quarterfinals, Niki will play Jacob Bradshaw of Australia who fired 14 aces on his way to a 6-7(10), 6-2, 6-1 victory over Karan Singh. It was Karan calling the shots in the first set when he led 5-3 and later 6-2 in the tie-break. Bradshaw was different class thereafter.

Siddharth Vishwakarma sustained his good work and beat Blake Ellis of Australia who had ousted fourth seed Mukund Sasikumar in the first round.

In a closely contested match, Siddharth converted two of 11 break points, as against one of five by the Aussie. Siddharth will play Yunseok Jang of Korea in the quarterfinals.

Yusuke Takahashi beat eighth Sidharth Rawat in an entertaining match. The Japanese was quite sharp on the big points and converted all the three break points he forced, in setting up a quarterfinal against third seed Vladyslav Orlov of Ukraine.

Top seed Evgeny Donskoy was too hot for a fighting Nitin Kumar Sinha and won 6-3, 6-4. He will play sixth seed Eric Vanshelboim of Ukraine in the quarterfinals.

In the doubles quarterfinals, Parikshit Somani and Manish Sureshkumar beat the top seeds Rithvick Bollipalli and Niki Poonacha 6-4, 6-4.

The results:

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Evgeny Donskoy (Rus) bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-3, 6-4; Eric Vanshelboim (Ukr) bt Rohan Mehra 6-2, 4-0 (retired); Siddharth Vishwakarma bt Blake Ellis (Aus) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; Yunseok Jang (Kor) bt Shuichi Sekiguchi (Jpn) 2-6, 7-5, 6-3; Yusuke Takahashi (Jpn) bt Sidharth Rawat 7-5, 6-3; Vladyslav Orlov (Ukr) bt Mitsuki Leong (Mas) 6-4, 6-3; Niki Poonacha bt Arthur Weber (Fra) 3-6, 6-3, 7-5; Jacob Bradshaw (Aus) bt Karan Singh 6-7(10), 6-2, 6-1.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Parikshit Somani & Manish Sureshkumar bt Rithvick Bollipalli & Niki Poonacha 6-4, 6-4; Nitin Kumar Sinha & Arthur Weber (Fra) bt Vladyslav Orlov (Ukr) & Kelsey Stevenson (Can) 6-4, 4-6, [10-8]; Francis Casey Alcnatara (Phi) & Pruchya Isaro (Tha) bt Tushar Madan & Karan Singh 4-6, 6-2, [10-7]; Yunseok Jang & Woobin Shin (Kor) bt Shivank Bhatnagar & Rohan Mehra 6-4, 6-3.