Following Sumit Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan’s success at the Bangalore Open 2024, two different Indian singles players have made their way into the Round of 16 at the Pune Challenger. Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha and Sasi Kumar Mukund have beaten heavy favorites Goncalo Oliveira and Federico Gaio to move on at the Challenger 100 event in Pune.
With just five singles matches scheduled for the day at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, world number 791 Poonacha beat 215-ranked Goncalo Oliveira in three tight sets to make it to the last 16. Meanwhile, Mukund claimed an easy straight-sets win over eighth seed Federico Gaio.
The only other seed in action, Dalibor Svrcina from the Czech Republic, beat Australia’s Philip Sekulic in straight sets to move on to the next round.
Poonacha will face Campatriot and number one seed Sumit Nagal or Yu Hsiou Hsu of Taiwan in his round of 16 match, while Mukund will face Chak Lam Coleman Wong of Hong Kong or Felix Gill of the United Kingdom.
Pune Challenger, Day 1 Round-up: Scores
Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha beat Goncalo Oliveira (6-3, 6-7, 7-6)
Saki Kumar Mukund beat [8] Federico Gaio (6-3, 6-2)
[5] Dalibor Svrcina beat Philip Sekulic (6-4, 6-3)
Tristan Schoolkate beat Geoffrey Blancaneaux (7-6, 6-3)
Wu Tung-lin beat Gauthier Onclin (7-6, 6-7, 6-3)
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