Tough draw for Manish Sureshkumar at ITF men’s tennis tournament

Manish will open his quest for accumulating ATP points with a match against one of the best juniors in the country, Aman Dahiya.

Aryan Shah, the best-ranked junior player in the country, on his way to the third and final qualifying round of the ITF men’s tennis tournament in Delhi on October 31, 2022. | Photo Credit: Kamesh Srinivasan

National champion and second seed Manish Sureshkumar finds himself in a very competitive quarter in the $15,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament to be played at the DLTA Complex from Tuesday.

Manish will open his quest for accumulating ATP points with a match against one of the best juniors in the country, Aman Dahiya. Former national champions Dalwinder and Niki Poonacha figure in the same quarter, along with the strong Karan Singh.

Top seed Oliver Crawford of the USA will start against a qualifier who will be decided after the third and final qualifying round on Tuesday.

Former national champion Siddharth Vishwakarma will challenge the sixth seed Boris Butulija of Serbia in the first round.

A nice blend of Indian and foreign players will make the event very lively, and serve as a good preparation for the many weeks of international tennis scheduled in the country.

The best ranked junior in the country Aryan Shah gave further hint about his talent and a sharp game as he blunted the game of fifth seed Woobin Shin who retired on the verge of defeat. The 16-year-old Aryan will face Shahbaaz Khan for a berth in the main draw.

Manish Ganesh also played well to oust the Korean second seed Lee Junhyun 6-3, 6-1. He will play Chirag Duhan who overcame a hesitant start to get past Aditya Nandal.

The Results:

Qualifying singles (second round): Madhwin Kamath bt Denim Yadav 6-3, 6-4; Arjun Mahadevan bt Raghav Jaisinghani 6-3, 6-2; Manish Ganesh bt Lee Junhyun (Kor) 6-3, 6-1; Chirag Duhan bt Aditya Nandal 4-6, 6-2, [10-5]; Dhruv Hirpara bt Yash Chaurasia 6-4, 7-6(3); Lakshit Sood bt Atharva Sharma 6-4, 6-3; Rohan Mehra bt Shashank Theertha 6-4, 7-5; Lakshya Gupta bt Tushar Madan 6-3, 6-2; Aryan Shah bt Woobin Shin (Kor) 6-3, 5-2 (retired); Shahbaaz Khan bt Gourav Gulia 6-2, 2-6, [10-3]; Udit Kamboj bt Sivadeep Kosaraju 6-1, 4-6, [13-11]; Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta bt Parikshit Somani 6-3, 5-7, [10-6].

The seedings: 1. Oliver Crawford (USA), Manish Sureshkumar, 3. Digvijay Pratap Singh, 4. Nitin Kumar Sinha, 5. Florent Bax (Fra), 6. Boris Butulija (Srb), 7. Niki Poonacha, 8. Ishaque Eqbal.