On a day on which most Indians bit the dust, Ashutosh had his chances against the temperamental Israeli, before bowing out in the third set which was decided on a tie-breaker.

Level pegging
Valtzer won the first set without too much trouble, breaking his opponent’s serve in the eighth game.
It was payback time for Ashutosh in the second as he broke Valtzer in the eighth game and then held his serve in the next game to draw level at one set apiece.

Along with the rising temperature, Valtzer also got heated up and repeatedly argued over line calls. At the other end, Ashutosh, as is his wont, stayed calm and did most of the talking with his racquet.
In the decider, the first four games went with serve, Ashutosh saving three break points in the fourth game.
Valtzer took the fifth with some neat volleys and then broke Ashutosh in the next to take a 4-2 lead. However, his joy was short-lived as Ashutosh broke back in the next game with a couple of forehand winners.

Tie-breaker
As both players held serve, the decider went to the tie-breaker, where Ashutosh committed too many unforced errors. Ashutosh got his first point only after Valtzer had waltzed his way to a 4-0 lead, and the Israeli closed out the contest with three more backhand winners.

Earlier in the day, India’s Vivek Shokeen squandered a one-set lead before going down 6-3, 4-6, 4-6 to seventh seed Slovakian Marek Semjan.

With Shokeen’s exit, the only Indian left in fray was eighth-seeded Sunil Kumar Sipaeya, who posted a 6-1, 6-3 win over compatriot Vijay Kannan. Earlier in the day, he had got past N Vijay Sundar Prasanth, also in straight sets, as he brought up a 6-3, 6-2 victory.

Bellary Open champion Rainer Eitzinger, who had to play two matches after the postponement of his first-round match due to rains on Tuesday, also booked a last eight berth, winning both his matches on the day with a fair degree of comfort.

Results (prefix denotes seedings, Indians unless mentioned):
Singles, second round: 6-Alexey Kedryuk (Kaz) bt Ajay Selvaraj 6-0, 6-1; 2-Rainer Eitzinger (Aut) bt Robert Belak (Ser) 6-1, 6-2; 4-Dekel Valtzer (Isr) bt Ashutosh Singh 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-1).
3-Ivan Cerovic (Cro) bt Tushar Liberhan 6-2, 6-2; 7-Marek Semjan (Slo) bt Vivek Shokeen 3-6, 6-4, 6-4; 1-Pavol Cervenak (Slo) bt Aditya Madkekar 6-4, 6-2; Sunil Kumar Sipaeya bt Vijay Kannan 6-1, 6-3; Philipp Oswald (Aut) bt Purav Raja 6-3, 6-3.
First round: 2-Rainer Eitzinger (Aut) bt Rohan Gide 6-2, 6-2; 1-Pavol Cervenak (Slo) bt Rupesh Roy 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (9-11), 6-1; Vijay Kannan bt Varun Walia 6-3, 6-2; Purav Raja bt Divij Sharan 7-5, 6-3; 8-Sunil Kumar Sipaeya bt N Vijay Sundar Prasanth 6-3, 6-2.
Doubles, second round: 4-Ivan Cerovic (Cro)/ Dekel Valtzer bt Robert Belak/ Darko Madjarovski (Ser) 6-3, 3-6, 10-3; Tushar Liberhan/ Rupesh Roy bt Rohan Gajjar/ Vishnu Vardhan 6-3, 6-4.