Pune, Mar 25 (IANS): Dalibor Svrcina of Czech Republic upset top seed Sidharth Rawat 6-4, 6-1 even as four other Indians progressed to the second round at the $15,000 ITF WTT Cup men's tennis championships here on Wednesday.
In a match lasting one hour and 28 minutes, Dalibor Svrcina broke Rawat in the fifth game of the opening set to record a 6-4, 6-1 win and advance to the round of 16.
Seventh seeded and newly crowned Arjun Kadhe survived some anxious moments in the second set to get past compatriot S.D. Prajwal Dev 6-3, 7-6(3). Sixth seeded Manish Sureshkumar carved out a credible 6-1, 6-4 win over Italian Lorenzo Bocchi in a match between qualifiers.
Seasoned N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth stopped the winning run of Faisal Qamar 6-4, 6-2 while another qualifier, Ishaque Eqbal, won the first set as the higher ranked Swiss, Luca Castelnuovo, retired in the second set at 2-0 due to an arm injury. This ensured four Indians entered the round of 16.
In the other matches featuring Indians, eighth seeded Zane Khan of the USA outpowered Abhinav Shanmugam 6-2, 6-0 while another Czech Republic player, Dominick Palan, was troubled in the first set but then subdued Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan 7-6(6), 6-1. Fourth seeded Oliver Crawford of the USA outplayed Wildcard Atharva Sharma of India 6-1, 6-0, and second seeded Irishman Simon Carr was given a tough fight by wildcard Dhruv Sunish before winning 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 in just over two hours.
Third seeded Briton Aidan Mchugh was made to fight by qualifier Omni Kumar of the USA before winning 6-2, 7-6(4).
Results:
First round (main draw):
Men's singles: Dalibor Svrcina (CZE) bt Sidharth RAWAT (IND) [1] 6-4, 6-1; Dominik Palan (CZE) bt (Q)Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND) 7-6(6), 6-1; Manish Sureshkumar (IND) [6] bt Lorenzo Bocchi (ITA) 6-1, 6-4; Zane Khan(USA) [8] bt Abhinav Shanmugam (IND)6-2, 6-0; Arjun Kadhe (IND) [7] bt S D Prajwal Dev (IND) 6-3, 7-6(3); Oliver Crawford(USA) [4] bt (WC)Atharva Sharma (IND)6-1, 6-0; Aidan Mchugh (GBR) [3] bt (Q) Omni Kumar (USA) 6-2, 7-6(4); (Q)N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) bt (Q)Faisal Qamar (IND)6-4, 6-2; Ishaque Eqbal (IND) bt Luca Castelnuovo (SUI) 6-3, 2-0 (retd); Simon Carr (IRL) [2] bt (WC) Dhruv Sunish (IND) 6-2, 3-6, 6-4
Doubles (first round): Marco Brugnerotto (ITA)/Davide Pozzi (ITA) bt Sahil Gaware (IND)/Gunjan Jadhav (IND) 2-6, 6-3, 10-8; Filip Bergevi (SWE) / Jonathan Mridha (SWE) [3] bt Jonathan Binding (GBR) / Henry Patten (GBR) (5)6-7, 6-3, 10-4.