ITF Mandya Open: Faisal, Shivank score upset wins to reach main draw

Mandya (Karnataka), Jan 8 : Faisal Qamar and Shivank Bhatnagar brought cheers to the Indian camp after they scripted an upset victory in the second and final qualifying round to make it to the main draw of the ITF Mandya Open at the PET Stadium here on Monday.

While Faisal won a one hour-49 minute battle against 8th seed Jiayang Dong of Australia 6-4, 4-6, 10-5, Shivank continued his good run upsetting fifth seed Aaron Cohen of Israel 7-5, 3-6, 10-6 in one hour 50 mins.

Thijmen Loof of the Netherlands ousted third seed Aryan Shah in straight sets 6-3, 6-1 while 12th seed Vishnu Vardhan saw the back of the second seed Woobin Shin of Korea 6-3, 6-7(5), 10-4 in the longest match of the day that lasted for over two hours.

The 24-year-old Faisal who came to Mandya after having recovered from a health issue and not having hit the courts until Saturday, immediately took a liking to the courts at the PET Stadium.

After being 0-3 down in the first set, Faisal who trains with his father, crawled back into the game with some stunning cross-court winners against his extremely agile Australian opponent and took the first set 6-4.

The Jaipur-lad was one break up in the second set but soon lost the advantage and got broken, eventually losing the set 4-6.In the deciding super tie-break, the Indians dominated the error-prone visitor to end up as the winner.

Faisal now runs into Kris Van Wyk of South Africa who has been giving the top billing for the main round.Sasikumar Mukund is the top-seeded Indian at No.4 while the recent inductee in the Indian Davis Cup team, SD Prajwal Dev is seeded No.8.

Giles Hussey of Great Britain is seeded second while Isralian Orel Kimhi is seeded No.3.Nam Hoang Ly of Vietnam, Indonesian M Rifiqi Fitriadi and Tsung-Hao Huang of Taipei are seeded from 5th, 6th and 7th respectively.

Results:

Singles Final Qualifying Round (Indians unless stated):

16-Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan bt 4-Raghav Jaisinghani 6-4, 6-2; 9-Matt Hulme (AUS) bt Jagmeet Singh 7-5, 6-3; Faisal Qamar bt 8-Jiayang Dong 6-4, 4-6, 10-5; 11-Vishnu Vardhan bt 2-Woobin Shin (KOR) 6-3, 6-7 (5), 10-4; 12-Kabir Hans bt Parikshit Somani 6-4, 7-6 (5); Thijmen Loof (NED) bt 3-Aryan Shah 6-3, 6-1; Shivank Bhatnagar bt 5-Aaron Cohen (ISR) 7-5, 3-6, 10-6; 7-Madhwin Kamath bt Lohithaksha Bathrinath 6-4, 4-6, 10-6.

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