JOIN USVishnu in quarterfinals
Top seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran of India and compatriot Vishnu Vardhan made their intentions clear as they stormed into the quarterfinals of the $15,000 F5 ITF Futures tennis tournament at the KSLTA stadium here on Wednesday.
For the second day running, Prajnesh had to cope with the challenge of a foreign contender and that he did in style, trouncing the Hong Kit Wong of Hong Kong 6-2, 6-1.
The 18-year old Wong was good in patches as he pushed Prajnesh a bit with his good rallies. But the youngster simply failed to convert his chances, which came far and few.
Prajnesh broke him in the third game of the first set and led 4-2, not before Wong forced him to three deuces and held two break points in the sixth game. Virtually after that testing phase, Prajnesh faced little opposition as he outplayed his opponent to take the set 6-2.
The pattern continued in the second too as Prajnesh raced to a 5-0 lead and shut the set and match at 6-1.
Earlier in the day, Vishnu offered young Dakshineshwar Suresh few lessons in the game, punching winners at will. The firepower of big serving Hyderabadi proved too much for Suresh as he lost 6-2, 6-1.
Second seed Sriram Balaji also enterd the last eight with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Siddarth Vishwakarma.
Later, Karunuday Singh, with his shaper volleys and strong forehand stopped fourth seed Mukund Sasi Kumar 7-6 (4), 6-3, while Karnataka’s wild card Suraj Prabodh went down to Siddarth Rawat 6-7 (4), 6-7 (3).
Results (Prefix indicate seedings/ Indians unless mentioned): Round 2: Singles: 5-Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Mohit Mayur 6-2, 6-3; 1-Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Hong Kit Wong (HK) 6-2, 6-1; 3-Vishnu Vardhan bt Dakshineshwar Suresh 6-2, 6-1; 6-Sami Reinwein (Ger) bt Paramveer Singh Bajwa 6-3, 3-6, 6-1; Hadin Vava bt Rishab Agarwal 6-4, 6-4; 7-Siddarth Rawat bt Suraj Prabodh 7-6(4), 7-6 (3); Karunuday Singh bt 4-Mukund Sasi Kumar 7-6(4), 6-3; 2-Sriram Balaji bt Siddarth Vishwakarma 6-2, 7-5.
Doubles: Chandril Sood/ Lakshit Sood bt Vasisht Cheruku/ SD Prajwal Dev 3-6, 6-3, 10-7; Vishnu Vardhan/ Sriram Balaji bt Jui Chen Hung (Tpe)/ Hong Kit Wong (HK) 7-5, 6-1; Jeson Patrombon (Phl)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Tejas Chaukulkar/ N Kaliyanda Poonacha 6-7 (2), 6-1, 10-4; Alexander C (US)/ Sami R (Ger) bt Amorudh C/ P Vignesh 7-5, 6-3.