Wild card Nitin Kumar Sinha , Qualifier Vishnu Vardhan and seventh seeded Karan Singh kept the Indian flag flying making it to the Quarter-finals of the Singles event at the MSLTA 25K Men’s ITF Tennis Tournament   being organised by Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) and played at GA Ranade Tennis court in Mumbai.

The annual event which is part of the three Men’s ITF tourney that is being hosted by AITA for the third year in a row also provides opportunity to Indian players to earn valuable prize money and ATP Points.

In the second round played on Wednesday Sinha, current National Men’s Runner-up  proved too wily for fellow Indian Manish Sureshkumar  and carved out a  fluent win in two straight sets 6-4, 6-3.

Seventh seeded Singh proved too strong for Rishab Agarwal in another all India affair, before romping home also in two straight sets 6-2, 6-0.  

Former Olympian and qualifier Vardhan on the other hand was leading 4-3 against fourth seeded Sasikuma Mukund also from India before the later conceded the match midway due to sickness.  In the last eight encounter Vishnu Vardhan will take on seeded Karan Singh ensuring an Indian Player in the Semifinals 

Top seeded Khumoyun Sultanov of Uzbekistan found the going tough in the first set by Dev Javia from India, before winning his per-quarter final match in two straight sets 7-5, 6-3. Sultanov will take on Adhithya Ganesan of USA in the last eight, after the later who entered the event as Junior Exempt had ended the winning run of  Maharashtra’s Wildcard entrant Siddhant Banthia with an identical set score of 6-3, 6-3 . Bhanthia earlier had upset eighth seed and Davis Cupper   Siddharth Vishwakarma (India) in two hard fought sets 7-5, 6-2 in his opening round.

Fifth seed Bogdan Bobrov of Russia also halted the winning run of qualifier  and  nineteen year old Yuvan Nandal of India with an 6-2, 6-4  win, while sixth seeded Egor Agafonov also from Russia proved too crafty for another Indian youngster Aryan Shah winning  6-1, 6-3. Both the Russians too qualified for the quarters.

Last week's winner at Bhubaneswar and second seeded Dalibor SvercinaA of the Czech Republic produced yet another clinical display against Russian Maxim Zhukov

in his quest for yet another title this week. The former won by a score line of 6-3, 6-3 to book a place in the last eight.

Results (Main Draw):

Singles (First Round): Khumoyun Sultanov (UZB) [1] beat Adil Kalyanpur (IND) 6-2, 6-1; Vishnu Vardhan (IND) beat Ishaque Eqbal (IND) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; (WC) Siddhant Banthia (IND) beat Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND) [8] 7-5, 6-2; (Q) Yuvan Nandal (IND) beat (Q) AbhINAv Shanmugam (IND) 7-6(2), 6-2;  (WC) Nitin Kumar Sinha (IND) beat Rishi Reddy (IND) 6-3, 6-4; Manish Sureshkumar (IND) beat (LL)Yunseok Jang (KOR) 6-4, 2-6, 6-1;  Bogdan Bobrov (RUS) [5] beat Yuta Kawahashi (JPN) 1-6, 6-4, 6-2;  Egor Agafonov (RUS) [6] beat Udit Kamboj (IND) 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4); Aryan Shah (IND) beat Dheeraj Kodancha Srinivasan (IND) 6-3,7-6(6); Rishab Agarwal (IND) beat  M Rifqi Fitriadi (INA) 7-6(5),2-6,6-4; Sasikumar Mukund[4]  (IND) beat Sidharth Rawat (IND) 7-6(5), 6-4; Karan Singh (IND) [7] beat Nick Chappell (USA) 6-3,7-6(6); Adhithya Ganesan (USA) beat Arthur Weber(FRA)6-2, 6-4; Dev Javia(IND) beat (WC) Senthil Kumar Rethin Pranav (IND) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

Singles (Second Round):

Khumoyun Sultanov (UZB) [1] beat  Dev Javia(IND) 7-5, 6-3; Adhithya Ganesan (USA) beat (WC) Siddhant Banthia (IND)  6-3, 6-3;  (WC) Nitin Kumar Sinha (IND) beat Manish Sureshkumar (IND) 6-4, 6-3; Bogdan Bobrov [5](RUS) beat (Q) Yuvan Nandal (IND) 6-2, 6-4; Karan Singh (IND) [7] beat  Rishab Agarwal (IND)  6-2, 6-0;  Vishnu Vardhan (IND) beat Sasikumar Mukund (IND) [4] 4-3 retd; Egor Agafonov (RUS) [6] beat Aryan Shah (IND) 6-1, 6-3; Dalibor Svercina (CZE) [2] beat Maxim Zhukov (RUS) 6-3, 6-3. 

Doubles (Pr-quarter finals Round):

Egor Agafonov (RUS)/Bogdan Bobrov (RUS) [1] beat Rishab Agarwal (IND)/Rishi Reddy (IND) 6-4, 6-7(4), 10-8; Aryan Shah (IND)/Adhithya Ganesan (USA) beat Sidharth Rawat (IND)/Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND) 7-5, 6-0; SD Prajwal Dev (IND) /Adil Kalyanpur (IND) [2] beat Aditya Balsekar (IND)/Yuvan Nandal (IND) 6-0, 6-1; M Rifqi Fitriadi (INA)/Jang Yunseok (KOR) beat Anup Bangargi(IND)/Prasad Ingale(IND) 6-2, 6-2; Siddhant Banthia (IND)/Vishnu Vardhan (IND) [3] beat Nick Chappell (USA)/Nitin Kumar Sinha (IND) 4-6, 6-1, 10-6; Dev Javia (IND)/Karan Singh (IND) beat Manas Dhamne (IND)/Caheer Warik(IND) 6-3, 6-4.

Doubles (Quarter-finals Round): 

Egor Agafonov(RUS) /Bogdan Bobrov (RUS) [1] beat Eqbal Ishaq (IND)/Faisal Qamar (IND) 7-5, 6-4; Aryan Shah (IND) /Adhithya Ganesan (USA) beat Yuta Kawahashi (JPN) / Kazuki Nishiwaki(JPN) 3-6,6-3, 10-7; M Rifqi Fitriadi (INA)/Jang Yunseok (KOR) beat Siddhant Banthia (IND) /Vishnu Vardhan (IND) [3] 6-4, 7-6(4);  SD Prajwal Dev (IND)/Adil Kalyanpur [2] beat Dev Javia(IND)/Karan Singh (IND) 7-6(3), 6-4. 

Photo Above (L to R) : Wild card Nitin Kumar Sinha , Qualifier Vishnu Vardhan and seventh seeded Karan Singh kept the Indian flag flying making it to the Quarter-finals of the Singles event at the MSLTA 25K Men’s ITF Tennis Tournament