In a massive upset on Thursday, India’s wildcard entry at the ATP Challenger 100 tournament in Pune, Niki Poonacha beat compatriot and top seed Sumit Nagal in straight sets, to move in the quarters. The former won convincingly 6-4, 6-3, in a clash that lasted an hour and 38 minutes.
Poonacha won despite conceding a 2-4 lead to Nagal in the first set, but didn’t look back from there. Now, the unseeded Indian will take on seventh-seeded Dave Sweeny from Australia.
Meanwhile, Sasikumar Mukund won his pre-quarters match too, and will now face third-seeded Aussie Adam Walton. Unfortunately, Ramanathan lost to Russia’s Alexey Zakharov 6-4, 6-4.
Two Indian Pairs in Semis
On the other hand, it was good day for Indian doubles teams as well. First, Arjun Kadhe and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan won 6-4, 7-6 win against Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner of Germany, and then Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni won against Duje Ajdukovic (Croatia) and Enrico Dalla Valle (Italy) 6-2, 6-7(4), 10-2.
This was their 10th consecutive win and are coming off title wins at Challengers in Chennai and Bengaluru in the last two weeks.
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