<p>Bengaluru: In what turned out to be a battle of endurance, 28-year-old Sumit Nagal conceded as many as seven match points to lose a three-set thriller to second seed Frenchman Harold Mayot 6-7 (2), 6-1, 6-7 (13) in the second round of the men’s singles competition at the Bengaluru Open on Wednesday.</p>.<p>Meanwhile, two of his younger compatriots, Dhakshineswar Suresh and Manas Dhamne, grinded out three-set victories over their foreign opponents to progress to the quarterfinals at the SM Krishna Tennis Stadium here.</p>.<p>25-year-old Dhakshineswar, whose game dropped several notches from the earlier round while his knees were heavily tapped, dug in deep to beat French qualifier Felix Bradshaw 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (4) as the world No. 521 revived himself from 0-30 down from the Frenchman serving for the match to take the match into the tie-breaker.</p>.<p>Fortune favoured the Indian as Bradshaw, who shocked eighth seed in the opening round, made errors in the tie breaker while Dhakhineswar showed his ability to bring out results when his rival was dominating the court.</p>.<p>18-year-old Dhamne, who did not look at his best either, played a patient game against Kazakhstan’s Beibit Zhukayev for a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 as the youngster adjusted his tactics on the court with the Kazakh testing him with his big serves.</p>.<p><strong>Intense battle</strong></p>.<p>The final singles match of the day, meanwhile, lived up to its billing with world No. 167 Mayot and No. 275 Nagal left it all on the court to gift the fans some enthralling tennis in a three-hour marathon that saw a multiple arguments with chair umpire, an under-serve and a brain-fade wrong line call that was out by several inches.</p>.<p>There was nothing to take away from any of the rivals as they fought for every inch of the court with the Frenchman saving seven match points in the tie-break to turn the tide in his favour after Sumit put the crowd on his feet by saving two match points to force the match into the decider.</p>.<p>Sumit had his moments of dominance on the court as he took the second set 6-1 with a tight service game backed by his fitness sprayed all over the court. This was after Mayot made it clear he knows how to handle crunch situations by taking the first set tie-breaker 7-4 after failing to hold his serve when he managed to break Sumit early.</p>.<p>By the time the match was deep into breaker with both locked at 10-10, the Frenchman, who took it deep from 2-6 down, looked all pumped up to finish off a visibly tired Sumit, whose service game abandoned him by now despite desperate shouts of encouragement by the fans.</p>.<p>A clever Mayot actually sowed the seeds for tiring out his opponent back in the second set when he figured out his rivals’ never-say-die attitude of chasing every ball by making him run across the court during the closing stages of the set while it was quite clear it will be a mammoth task for the Frenchman to recover at 1-5 down.</p>.<p>Taking nothing away from Sumit, the Indian had his chances of sealing the game but back-to-back volley errors during match-point situation of tie breaker came back to bite him. That same identical volley error on his serve frustrated him yet again as he smashed the remaining ball in his pocket out of the stadium.Mayot had no intention to let go this chance as the Frenchman sealed the win with an ace while Sumit vented his anger by smashing the racket and throwing it away to end his campaign.</p>.<p>Results: Round of 16: Singles (prefix denotes seeding): 2-Harold Mayot (Fra) bt Sumit Nagal (Ind) 7-6 (2), 6-1, 7-6 (11); Dhakshineswar Suresh (Ind) bt Felix Balshaw (Fra) 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (4); Manas Dhamne (Ind) bt Beibit Zhukayev (Kaz) 6-2, 3-6, 6-2; 1-Pedro Martinez (ESP) bt Micheal Geerts (Bel) 7-6(3), 6-3; 6-Timofey Skatov (Kaz) bt Mitsuki Wei Kang Leong (MAS) 6-3, 7-5; Cedrik-Marcel Stebe (Ger) bt Borna Gojo (Cro) 7-5, 7-6(9); Jonas Forejtek (CZE) bt Dan Martin (Can) 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-4; Matteo Martineau (FRA) bt Eric Vanshelbolm (UKR) 6-2, 6-2.</p>.<p>Doubles: Max Houkes/ Niels Visker (NED) bt 2xAnirudh Chandrasekar/ Arjun Kadhe (Ind) 2-6, 7-6(4), 10-5; 1-N Sriram Balaji (Ind)/ Neil Oberleitner (Aus) bt Vladyslav Orlov (Ukr)/ Eero Vasa (Fin) 6-3, 6-2; Petr Bar Biryukov/ Grigoriy Lomakin (Kaz) bt Siddhant Banthia/ Dhakshineswar Suresh (Ind) 6-4, 6-4; SD Prajwal Dev/ Nitin Kumar Sinha (Ind) bt Micheal Geerts (Bel) / Seita Watanabe (JPN) 6-2, 7-5.</p>
<p>Bengaluru: In what turned out to be a battle of endurance, 28-year-old Sumit Nagal conceded as many as seven match points to lose a three-set thriller to second seed Frenchman Harold Mayot 6-7 (2), 6-1, 6-7 (13) in the second round of the men’s singles competition at the Bengaluru Open on Wednesday.</p>.<p>Meanwhile, two of his younger compatriots, Dhakshineswar Suresh and Manas Dhamne, grinded out three-set victories over their foreign opponents to progress to the quarterfinals at the SM Krishna Tennis Stadium here.</p>.<p>25-year-old Dhakshineswar, whose game dropped several notches from the earlier round while his knees were heavily tapped, dug in deep to beat French qualifier Felix Bradshaw 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (4) as the world No. 521 revived himself from 0-30 down from the Frenchman serving for the match to take the match into the tie-breaker.</p>.<p>Fortune favoured the Indian as Bradshaw, who shocked eighth seed in the opening round, made errors in the tie breaker while Dhakhineswar showed his ability to bring out results when his rival was dominating the court.</p>.<p>18-year-old Dhamne, who did not look at his best either, played a patient game against Kazakhstan’s Beibit Zhukayev for a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 as the youngster adjusted his tactics on the court with the Kazakh testing him with his big serves.</p>.<p><strong>Intense battle</strong></p>.<p>The final singles match of the day, meanwhile, lived up to its billing with world No. 167 Mayot and No. 275 Nagal left it all on the court to gift the fans some enthralling tennis in a three-hour marathon that saw a multiple arguments with chair umpire, an under-serve and a brain-fade wrong line call that was out by several inches.</p>.<p>There was nothing to take away from any of the rivals as they fought for every inch of the court with the Frenchman saving seven match points in the tie-break to turn the tide in his favour after Sumit put the crowd on his feet by saving two match points to force the match into the decider.</p>.<p>Sumit had his moments of dominance on the court as he took the second set 6-1 with a tight service game backed by his fitness sprayed all over the court. This was after Mayot made it clear he knows how to handle crunch situations by taking the first set tie-breaker 7-4 after failing to hold his serve when he managed to break Sumit early.</p>.<p>By the time the match was deep into breaker with both locked at 10-10, the Frenchman, who took it deep from 2-6 down, looked all pumped up to finish off a visibly tired Sumit, whose service game abandoned him by now despite desperate shouts of encouragement by the fans.</p>.<p>A clever Mayot actually sowed the seeds for tiring out his opponent back in the second set when he figured out his rivals’ never-say-die attitude of chasing every ball by making him run across the court during the closing stages of the set while it was quite clear it will be a mammoth task for the Frenchman to recover at 1-5 down.</p>.<p>Taking nothing away from Sumit, the Indian had his chances of sealing the game but back-to-back volley errors during match-point situation of tie breaker came back to bite him. That same identical volley error on his serve frustrated him yet again as he smashed the remaining ball in his pocket out of the stadium.Mayot had no intention to let go this chance as the Frenchman sealed the win with an ace while Sumit vented his anger by smashing the racket and throwing it away to end his campaign.</p>.<p>Results: Round of 16: Singles (prefix denotes seeding): 2-Harold Mayot (Fra) bt Sumit Nagal (Ind) 7-6 (2), 6-1, 7-6 (11); Dhakshineswar Suresh (Ind) bt Felix Balshaw (Fra) 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (4); Manas Dhamne (Ind) bt Beibit Zhukayev (Kaz) 6-2, 3-6, 6-2; 1-Pedro Martinez (ESP) bt Micheal Geerts (Bel) 7-6(3), 6-3; 6-Timofey Skatov (Kaz) bt Mitsuki Wei Kang Leong (MAS) 6-3, 7-5; Cedrik-Marcel Stebe (Ger) bt Borna Gojo (Cro) 7-5, 7-6(9); Jonas Forejtek (CZE) bt Dan Martin (Can) 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-4; Matteo Martineau (FRA) bt Eric Vanshelbolm (UKR) 6-2, 6-2.</p>.<p>Doubles: Max Houkes/ Niels Visker (NED) bt 2xAnirudh Chandrasekar/ Arjun Kadhe (Ind) 2-6, 7-6(4), 10-5; 1-N Sriram Balaji (Ind)/ Neil Oberleitner (Aus) bt Vladyslav Orlov (Ukr)/ Eero Vasa (Fin) 6-3, 6-2; Petr Bar Biryukov/ Grigoriy Lomakin (Kaz) bt Siddhant Banthia/ Dhakshineswar Suresh (Ind) 6-4, 6-4; SD Prajwal Dev/ Nitin Kumar Sinha (Ind) bt Micheal Geerts (Bel) / Seita Watanabe (JPN) 6-2, 7-5.</p>