Sharm El Sheikh: Aryan Goveas missed his chance and allowed second seed Frederico Ferreira Silva of Portugal to escape with a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(2) victory in the second round of the $15,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament here on Thursday.
In a battle that lasted two hours and 41 minutes, the 18-year-old Goveas missed a setpoint in the 10th game of the first set on the opponent’s serve.
In a close contest, in which there were only seven breakpoints and two breaks of serve, Aryan was bound to rue the missed chance, especially when he trailed 6-0 in the tie-break of the decider.
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Meanwhile, Adil Kalyanpur made his first singles ATP point as he beat qualifier Eric Caleguer of Brazil 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the first round of the $15,000 ITF men’s tournament at Manacor in Spain.
The 16-year-old Adil, who is training at the Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy in Mallorca, bounced back from being down 3-6, 1-2 to reel off eight games on the trot.
It was the first singles victory in the professional circuit for Adil, playing on a wild card. He had made the doubles semifinals of the ITF Futures event in Chandigarh along with Sanam Singh last April.
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With Rafael Nadal’s uncle and coach Toni Nadal deciding that Adil would benefit by competing among the men, rather than play the Australian Open juniors, the lad from Bengaluru, ranked 107 among the juniors, stayed back at the academy to compete in the men’s event.
Adil along with the national junior champion Nitin Kumar Sinha is scheduled to train with the five-member Indian Davis Cup squad in preparation for the Asia-Oceania tie against New Zealand in Pune from February 3 to 5.
The results: Men: $15,000 ITF, Sharm El Sheikh: Second round: Frederico Ferreira Silva (Por) bt Aryan Goveas 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(2). First round: Goveas bt Jose Fco Vidal Azorin (Esp) 7-5, 6-4.
$15,000 ITF, Manacor, Spain: First round: Adil Kalyanpur bt Eric Caleguer (Bra) 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.
Doubles: First round: Pascal Meis & Demian Raab (Ger) bt Jake Hersey (G.Br) & Adil Kalyanpur 7-6(3), 7-5.
Women: $15,000 ITF, Guadeloupe, France:First round: Monika Kilnarova (Cze) bt Kyra Shroff 6-2, 6-2.
Doubles: Quarterfinals: Mayo Hibi (Jpn) & Carol Zhao (Can) bt Estelle Cascino (Fra) & Kyra 6-3, 7-5. First round: Estelle Cascino & Kyra bt Melissa Kopinski & Mara Schmidt (US) 6-1, 3-6, 10-7.
$15,000 ITF, Cairo: First round: Carlota Molina Megias (Esp) bt Natasha Palha 6-3, 6-4; Fatma Al Nabhani (Oma) bt Nidhi Chilumula 6-3, 6-0. — Sports Bureau