Mysuru Open: SD Prajwal Dev advances to men's singles pre-quarters

MYSURU: India's SD Prajwal Dev made his way into the singles pre-quarterfinals of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Mysuru Open 2023 with a 6-4, 7-5 win over compatriot S Abhinav Sanjeev at the Mysore Tennis Club on Wednesday.

Prajwal was scheduled to meet experienced Indian player Ramkumar Ramanathan, who was seeded fifth here, but the latter had to withdraw from the tournament owing to an injury, as per a press release from Mysuru Open.

Prajwal, the 26-year-old Mysuru lad, will face his countryman Vishnu Vardhan in the Round of 16. The USD 25,000 event is being hosted by the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA).

But the biggest shock of the day came when unseeded Briton George Loffhagen, a world number 182, shocked top-seeded Nam Hoang Ly of Vietnam 6-3, 6-4.

However, the second-seeded Oliver Crawford of the USA and Oriov Vladyslav of Ukraine had better fortunes on the day, advancing to the pre-quarterfinals.

Crawford had little trouble in vanquishing Manish Ganesh, a wildcard entrant from India, with a 6-1, 6-3 victory. But Vladyslav faced stiff challenge from India's Niki Poonacha before emerging a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victor. Eighth-seeded Australian Ellis Blake too booked a berth in the pre-quarterfinals after his Indian opponent Siddharth Vishwakarma, a qualifier, withdrew from the match while leading 2-0 in the first set.

Fourth-seeded Mukund Sasikumar took to court late in the evening against Serbia's Boris Butulija. But the skies opened up to interrupt the match when the Indian player was leading 2-1 in the first set. The match will resume on Thursday.

Results (Singles, R32) George Loffhagen beat (1) Nam Hoang Ly 6-3, 6-4; (2) Oliver Crawford beat Manish Ganesh 6-1, 6-3; SD Prajwal Dev beat Abhinav Sanjeev 6-4, 7-5; Vishnu Vardhan beat Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan 7-5, 6-4; (3) Orlov Vladyslav beat Niki Poonacha 4-6, 6-2, 6-3; (8) Ellis Blake beat Siddharth Vishwakarma 2-0 (Retired); Nitin Kumar Sinha beat Manish Sureshkumar 2-6, 6-4, 6-4; Florent Bax beat Digvijay Pratap Singh 7-5, 6-3; Rishab Agarwal beat Fardeen Quamar 6-1, 6-1; Mukund Sasikumar vs Boris Butulija 2-1 (interrupted) Results (Doubles, R16) Dali Blanch / Nicholas Bybel beat A Deepak / Manish Ganesh 6-0, 6-1; Ishaque Eqbal / Karan Singh beat Grigoriy Lomakin / Woobin Shin 6-2, 6-3.