Two-time national champion Niki Poonacha overcame spells of nerves to blast his way past the country’s No.1, the 101st ranked Sumit Nagal 6-4, 6-3 in the pre-quarterfinals of the $133,250 Maha Open Challenger tennis tournament at the Balewadi Stadium on Thursday.
After stumbling to an indifferent start, when he made three double faults on opting to serve, the 28-year-old Niki settled down nicely to play his best tennis, hitting the big serves and firing the ground strokes beyond the reach of the athletic Nagal.
The fans had gathered to watch Nagal under the lights, but soon changed allegiance and were chanting ‘Niki’, fascinated by the firebrand game.
Coached by Borna Bikic who was on hand to guide him, Niki turned the match around with breaks of serve in the eighth and 10th games.
Into the second set, Niki was his confident self. He fired six aces, hit a flurry of winners and had only one double fault. Most importantly, Niki converted all his chances, as he capitalised on the three break points that he forced. A string of winners saw him break Nagal’s serve in the sixth game of the second set. Serving for the match in the ninth game, Niki made three errors, but capitalised on the fourth match point.
After the title in Chennai and semifinals in Bengaluru, it was disappointment for top seed Nagal but he fought hard till the end.
In the quarterfinals, Niki will challenge the seventh seed - Dane Sweeny of Australia.
In the doubles quarterfinals, top seeds Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Arjun Kadhe recovered from being down 3-6 in the second set tie-break to win in straight sets, reeling off five points in a row.
The champions of the last two tournaments, Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan overcame a second set loss to outplay Duje Ajdukovic and Enrico Dalla Valle 10-2 in the super tie-break. Ramkumar was unable to find his way past the Russian qualifier Alexey Zakharov in the singles, and lost 4-6, 4-6, after giving glimpses of his competitive approach.
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