Bengaluru Open: Unseeded Indian pair Banthia-Somani storm into doubles semifinals
Bengaluru, Feb 27 (IANS) The unseeded Indian pairing of Siddhant Banthia and Parikshit Somani dismantled Nicolas Mejia and Bernard Tomic 7-5, 6-0 to reach the Bengaluru Open doubles semifinals on Thursday. The home duo will now fight it out with Australia’s Blake Bayldon and Matthew Christopher Romios for a place in the summit clash.
Organised by the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA), the Bengaluru Open is an ATP Challenger 125 tournament with a prize pool of USD 2,00,000. It currently holds the distinction of being India’s biggest international tennis event. The champion of this hard-court tournament will earn 125 valuable ATP ranking points. An even first set on Court 1 of the KSLTA Tennis Stadium saw both Banthia/Somani and Mejia/Tomic go toe-to-toe for the upper hand, which the latter nearly seized in game seven. However, after saving a crucial break point, the Indian pair swept through games nine and 11 on their serve before breaking in game 12 for the lead.
Carrying the momentum with them into the second set, Banthia and Somani then bageled their opponents in the second set that lasted just 20 minutes.
Earlier, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni moved a step closer to a successful title defence with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Hynek Barton and Eric Vanshelboim. The reigning champions broke early in the first set before smoothly sailing into a lead. They then achieved crucial breaks in games five and nine of the second set for the win.
The most successful doubles players in the tournament, Ramkumar and Myneni, will square up against the winner of the tie between Anirudh Chandrasekar/Ray Ho and SD Prajwal Dev/Aryan Shah for a spot in the final.
Joining the two Indian pairs in the semifinals were second-seeded Bayldon and Romios. Facing India’s Adil Kalyanpur and Karan Singh, the Australian duo broke in the very first game of the match, setting the tone early.
In the second set, Blake and Romios resisted a challenge from their opponents, breaking them in game seven and saving two crucial breakpoints in game eight to seal a 6-2, 6-4 win.
In the singles event, Hynek Barton continued his dream run, backing up his stunning upset of top-seed Vit Kopriva in the previous round with a 7-6(5), 6-3 victory over Denmark’s August Holmgren to reach the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, third seed Brandon Holt came from a set down to overcome former World No. 17 Bernard Tomic in a hard-fought 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 battle, booking his place in the last eight. The third singles match of the day saw seventh seed Shintaro Mochizuki defeat Jay Clarke 5-7, 6-1, 6-2.
–IANS
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