India number one singles player Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Sumit Nagal, Ramkumar Ramanathan, and Sasikumar Mukund bagged straight-set wins in their respective outings, on Wednesday, to move into the KPIT MSLTA Challenger Series pre-quarterfinals alongside Manish Sureshkumar, at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune.
Prajnesh, playing against Ludhiana's Chandril Sood, clinched a victory in the one-sided affair with a scoreline of 6-1,6-3.
Sixth-seeded Ramkumar, on the other hand, hammered eight aces on his way to a 6-3, 6-4 win over Markos Kalovelonis.
Eighth-seeded Sasikumar inflicted a crushing defeat on Japanese doubles specialist Toshide Matsui, with scores of 6-2,6-3.
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Wildcard entry Aryan Goveas stretched Sumit in one of the best matches of the day. Third-seeded Sumit came back from being 1-4 down in the second set to stop Aryan Goveas 6-3, 7-6(5) in an hour and 16 minutes. However, owing to the intense show that Aryan put up on the court, he earned quite an applause from the onlookers. The 21-year-old from Mumbai pushed his accomplished rival to a tiebreak in the second set having lost the first set 3-6. Nagal gained a break in the ninth game to lead 5-4 against Aryan, who trains in Pune under Aditya Madkekar. At 3-3 in the tiebreak, the wildcard showed his sporting side awarding an ace to Nagal which was called out.
While, wildcard Dhruv Sunish, 19, too gave a good account of himself by taking 13th seeded Ivan Nedelko of Russia to the ropes, eight Indians, including 10th seeded Saketh Myneni, made their exit. Playing against Ergi Kirkin, who came back from a losing position, Myneni lost 3-6,7-5,6-4, in what summed up as the longest match of the day.
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