Shahbaaz Khan survived a match-point to beat Hardeep Singh Sandhu 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(6) in the first round of the $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament at the Harvest Academy, Jassowal, on Monday.
In a gripping contest that spanned two hours and 28 minutes, Shahbaaz saved a match-point at 5-6 in the third set tie-break.
Shahbaaz served 11 aces in the match and won one more point than his opponent, 107 to 106.
In another lively encounter, Anvit Bendre needed 10 match-points to quell the challenge from Prajwal Dev 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
Top seed Sasikumar Mukund sailed past Dalwinder Singh.
The results:
Singles (first round): Sasikumar Mukund bt Dalwinder Singh 6-3, 6-2; Shahbaaz Khan bt Hardeep Singh Sandhu 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(6); Sidharth Rawat bt Jatin Dahiya 6-3, 6-0; Anvit Bendre bt Prajwal Dev 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
Qualifying event (third and final round): Rubal Shandilya bt Aditya Deswal 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(3); Ranjeet Singh bt Garry Tokas 6-0, 6-2.
Garvit Batra bt Deepinder Bains 6-2, 6-3; Rishab Agarwal bt Maninder Singh 6-2, 6-0; Basil Khuma bt Paras Dahiya 5-7, 6-1, 6-1.
Taha Kapadia bt Vikrant Dahiya 7-5, 6-3; Udaypratap Singh Chahal bt Yuvraj Singh 2-6, 7-6(2), 6-2; Ankush Arora bt Siddharth Anand 6-3, 6-4.
