In only his tenth singles match of 2017, Saketh Myneni doused eighth-seeded Pedja Krstin’s fire to win 4-6, 6-2, 6-0, and advance to the quarterfinals of the KPIT-MSLTA $50,000 ATP Challenger tennis on Wednesday.
The Serb, seven years Myneni’s junior, took the first set, serving it out after breaking the tall Indian in the ninth game, but he fell apart as the match progressed to capitulate in 90 minutes.
Yuki Bhambri did just enough to get past the big hitting Ante Pavic in a 6-4, 7-6(4) win while Ramkumar Ramanathan went through to the last eight beating Brydan Klein 7-6(7), 6-3.
Bhambri won the first set on an early break, but found things tougher in the second. However, he recovered from 0-3, and went on to force the tie-break, which he clinched.
Sumit Nagal lost his temper disputing a line-call, and went down in straight sets to Adrian Menendez-Maceiras. On an outside court, Sriram Balaji squandered four match-points to lose 5-7,6-4,7-5 to Aleksandr Nedovyesov.
The 30-year-old Myneni began shakily; he was two break-points down, but he pulled it back to win the first game.
He was erratic even on his service games; he dropped 14 in all, including three in the ninth, and the first set was gone. The second set saw a remarkable change. Myneni won the first game at love, clinching it with an ace.
Better shot-selection saw him take charge, and things were level in quick time. The decider, for Myneni, was just a matter of capitalising on Krstin’s errors, including a sequence of double-faults, while staying solid himself.
The results: Second round: Saketh Myneni bt Pedja Krstin (Srb) 4-6, 6-2, 6-0; Jay Clarke (GBr) bt Evan King (USA) 6-3, 6-4; Nikola Milojevic (Srb) bt Hugo Grenier (Fra) 7-5, 6-3; Adrian Menendez-Maceiras (Esp) bt Sumit Nagal 6-3,6-4; Yuki Bhambri bt Ante Pavic (Cro) 6-4, 7-6(4); Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Kaz) bt Sriram Balaji 5-7, 6-4, 7-5; Blaz Kavcic (Slo) bt Vijay Sundar Prashanth (Ind) 6-3, 6-2.
Doubles: Quarterfinals: Scott Clayton & Jonny O’Mara (GBr) bt Ivan Sabanov & Matej Sabanov (Cro) 6-2, 6-4.
First round: Evan King (USA) & Lucas Miedler (Aut) bt Divij Sharan & Mikhail Elgin (Rus) 7-6(9), 6-4; Tomislav Brkic (Bih) & Ante Pavic (Cro) bt Karim Mohamed Maamoun (Egy) & Nikola Milojevic (Srb) 6-1,6-4; Saketh Myneni & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt N. Sriram Balaji & Vishnu Vardhan 6-3, 6-4 .
