Bengaluru Open | India's singles campaign ends

Bengaluru: India’s singles campaign came to an end at the Bengaluru Open quarterfinals as both Manas Dhamne and Dhakshineswar Suresh lost their matches in straight sets at the SM Krishna Stadium on Thursday.

India’s chances remain open in the doubles as N Sriram Balaji, along with his Austrian partner Neil Oberleitner, defeated Kazakh-Russian pair Grigoriy Lomakin and Petr Bar Biryukov 6-7 (8), 6-4, 10-6.

World No. 556 Dhamne went down to No. 319 Matteo Martineau 4-6, 5-7 (5) in what was the 18-year-old boy’s deepest run at an ATP 125 Challenger event. Meanwhile, Dhakshineswar battled a couple of medical timeouts before going down to second seed Harold Mayot 6-7 (5), 2-6.

Dhakshineswar, however, showed his abilities with his explosive game as he got the crowd by his side from his second service game onwards after a shaky start. The big-serving 6’5’’ Indian, who is in his final semester at the US collegiate at Wake Forest University, served to the T while enjoying the extra bounce off the high-altitude venue facilitating his kick serves.

He had a capable opponent at the other side of the net as the 23-year-old Frenchman, who ousted Sumit Nagal in a three-hour marathon less than 24 hours ago, showed he has the service game to take advantage of the conditions.

The duo held on to their serves without much trouble for most of the first set but the quick-feet Frenchman was showing his familiar traits of reading his rivals as he looked to unsettle Dhakshineswar by readjusting his position for the return.

Interestingly, Mayot also restricted his backhand returns to slice, admittedly to an existent wrist injury, but was using it efficiently to skid the ball on the court, forcing the tall Indian to put in extra effort to return them on the backhand. The Indian did impress with his ability to return but wasn’t as consistent at his rival, who was thinking off his feet.

The ploys came to fruition in the tie-breaker as the experienced tour player managed a couple of good returns when Dhakshineswar missed his spots, allowing the second seed Frenchman to open up a three set-point opportunity. Knowing the Indian, he trusted his big serve to keep his chances open but a forehand net error on the volley cost him.

Errors crept in further in the Indian game by now as he took a short medical break in between the sets. His big serves turned inaccurate too and Mayot made the most out of it by opening up a 4-0 lead with back-to-back break points.

Dhakshineswar took another long medical break before returning to win two games of his serves while the Frenchman did rest of the formalities.

Meanwhile teenager Manas’ dream run ended at the home event despite a gritty battle with Martineau.

Dropping just two games to a solid Martineau was enough as the Frenchman closed out the match once the lead was taken.

Results: Quarterfinals: Singles: 1xPedro Martinez (ESP) bt Cedrik-Marcel Stebe (Ger) 6-2, 6-0; 6xTimofey Skatov (Kaz) bt Jonas Forejtek (CZE) 6-4, 6-2; Matteo Martineau (Fra) bt Manas Dhamne (Ind) 6-4, 7-6(5); 2xHarold Mayot (Fra) bt Dhakshineswar Suresh (Ind) 7-6(5), 6-2.

Doubles: 3xArthur Reymond/ Luca Sanchez (Fra) bt Adil Kalyanpur/Saketh Myneni (Ind) 5-7, 6-4, 10-8; Nicolas Barrientos (Col)/ Benjamin Kittay (USA) bt SD Prajwal Dev/ Nitin Kumar Sinha (Ind) 6-7(3), 6-3, 10-8.