Adil beats third seed Lukas Krainer Bengaluru ITF Open

Bengaluru: Local lad Adil Kalyanpur, who went through two tough qualifying rounds, scored a brilliant comeback victory to send the third seed Lukas Krainer of Austria home with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 win that put him in the pre-quarterfinals of the SKME ITF Open here on Wednesday.

The day also saw five out of a total of eight qualifiers advancing to the second round.

Meanwhile, Arjun Kadhe, seeded fifth, began his quest for a back to back title in the right earnest with a facile 6-4, 6-2 victory over qualifier Rishi Reddy while Kadhe's opponent in the final last week and second seed Sidharth Rawat breezed past his Kazak rival Dostanbek Tashbulatov 6-2, 6-0 to enter the last 16 stage.

Seventh seed Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha overcame a fighting former Olympian and Asian Games Medallist Vishnu Vardhan 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (5). In a marathon duel that lasted three hours and 22 minutes, qualifier Paras Dahiya battled against fatigue and cramps to outlast SD Prajwal Dev 6-7 (5), 7-6 (3), 6-4 and make it to the pre-quarterfinals.

Although Adil began on a wrong foot losing his serve in the opening game that eventually saw him lose the set, the 22-year-old was in the hunt and didn't lose steam. In the second set, the games went with the serves until the fourth game after which, Adil who trains with the Indian captain for the Billie Jean King Cup Vishal Uppal, stepped up his game and came up with superb forehand forays, which unnerved his 21-year-old opponent who began committing unforced errors including two doubles faults in the eighth game to lose 2-6.

After the opponents had traded breaks in the first two games, Adil broke Lukas' serve in the sixth game to go 4-2 up. However, thanks to his three double faults, he lost serve in the seventh but did well to return the favour in the next and clinched the ninth game and the match at love that included two aces.

"I wasn't feeling that great when I came to Bengaluru and was facing some chinks in the practice. However, I approached this tournament with a determination to give my best. The result does not have a bearing," said Adil.

In the Vishnu Vardhan-Poonacha match, the former Olympian and Asian Games Medalist raced to a 3-0 lead with break in the second game and looked like he would pull off an upset as he took the first set 6-3.

The second set saw the opponents holding their respective serves for the first four games before Niki burst out winning four games on the trot to take the match into the decider. The third set was well fought with the players not receding an inch and had to be decided via tie-breaker.

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