Javia overcomes Manish in opener: Mumbai Open champs Prajwal-Adil pair bows out

Kalaburagi, Nov 19: For the good part of the contest, it seemed like anyone’s game. But just as the mercury began to soar, seventh-seeded Dev Javia found his touch to come through his opening match of the ITF Kalaburagi Open at the Chandrashekhar Patil Stadium courts here on Tuesday.

The southpaw, who has shown some consistency this season, overcame wildcard entrant Manish Ganesh 6-4, 6-3 in an hour and 12 minutes of the men’s $25,000 tournament.

However, it was Manish who struck first, breaking the 22-year-old in the fifth game. But Javia, who has risen over 700 spots on the ATP rankings this season, broke back in the next game. The two traded breaks again before Javia, showing great volleying skills, broke the Mysurean in the 10th game to take the opening set.

Riding the momentum, Javia jumped to a 4-0 lead and lost his focus momentarily to allow Manish to reduce the deficit to 2-4. But the youngster, who made two semifinal appearances and five quarters in the last two months, hit back in fine fashion to close out the match without further hiccups.

On another court, qualifier Dheeraj Kodancha Srinivasan powered into the second round when Jang Yunseok retired midway through the second set on medical grounds. Feeling slightly dizzy, the Korean had taken a medical timeout when down 0-3 in the first set, which he lost 0-6. Jang, who kept questioning line calls repeatedly, called it quits when up 4-3 and 30-40 down on his serve in the second set.

PRAJWAL-ADIL PAIR LOSES

Later, second-seeded SD Prajwal Dev and Adil Kalyanpur, coming off a splendid doubles triumph in Mumbai last week, went down in the first round in three sets (2-6, 6-3, 3-10) to the American-Indian combine of Nick Chappell and Nitin Kumar Sinha.

After dropping the first set rather tamely, the in-form duo of Prajwal and Adil raised their game several notches by taking the second and pushing the issue to the super tiebreak.

Unfortunately, they failed to maintain that momentum in the decider, an unlucky net cord early in the skirmish set them back a bit. But Chappell, who struggled with his serve right through the contest, came good when it mattered, and Sinha was as solid as ever to power into the quarters.

Results (Round 1, prefix denotes seeding, Indians unless mentioned):

Singles: 7-Dev Javia bt Manish Ganesh 6-4, 6-3; Manish Sureshkumar bt Siddhant Bhantia 7-6 (7-4), 6-4; Dheeraj Kodancha Srinivasan bt Jang Yunseok (Kor) 6-0, 3-4 (retd.).

Doubles: 1-Egor Agafonov/ Bogdan Bobrov (Rus) bt Manas Dhamne/ Yuvan Nandal 6-2, 6-3; M Rifqi Fitriadi (Ina)/ Rishi Reddy bt Sandesh Dattatray Kurale/ Prasad Ingale 6-4, 7-6 (7-5); Rishab Agarwal/ Kabir Hans bt Aditya Balsekar/ Maxim Zhukov (Rus) 6-2, 6-0; Nick Chappell (USA)/ Nitin Kumar Sinha bt 2-SD Prajwal Dev/ Adil Kalyanpur 6-2, 3-6, 10-3; Yash Chaurasia/ Karan Singh bt Preetham Ganesh AS/ Chandan Shivaraj 6-2, 6-0; 3-Siddhant Banthia/ Vishnu Vardhan bt Raghav Jaisinghani/ Kazuki Nishiwaki (Jpn) 6-3, 7-6 (7-3); 4-Parikshit Somani/ Manish Sureshkumar bt Lucan Deliano (Ger)/ Khumoyun Sultanov (Uzb) 6-1, 6-4; Adhithya Ganesan (USA)/ Aryan Shah bt Manish Ganesh/ Dheeraj Kodancha Srinivasan 6-3, 4-6, 10-4.

CAPTION: PIX-1: India’s Dheeraj Kodancha Srinivasan essays a two-handed backhand return to Korea’s Yang Yunseok in the first round of the ITF Kalaburagi Open on Tuesday.

PIX-2: Seventh-seeded Dev Javia in action against fellow Indian Manish Ganesh in the first round of the ITF Kalaburagi Open on Tuesday.

PIX-3: Kalaburagi South MLA Allamprabhu Patil (centre), Ms. Fouzia Taranum, IAS, Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate of Kalaburagi and other officials and players at the opening ceremony of the ITF Kalaburagi Open on Tuesday.