Karnataka Open: Aditya Balsekar enters main draw, other Indians bite the dust

Bengaluru: The main draw action of the Karnataka Open began on a quiet and steady note with those expected to win advancing here on Monday. But the opening day ended with the eighth seed suffering an early defeat at the SM Krishna Tennis Stadium. 

Though there was a lot of home interest, with six Indians taking to court, Aditya Vishal Balsekar was the lone competitor who brought some cheer by beating higher-ranked Grigoriy Lomakin of Kazakhstan in the final qualifying round. 

The 23-year-old Indian, seeded ninth in the qualifiers, scored a 6-3, 7-5 win over fifth-seeded Lomakin to enter the main draw. 

Meanwhile, Bengaluru boy Adil Kalyanpur grabbed the initial lead but lost steam as the match progressed to go down 7-5, 3-6, 3-6 to USA’s Christopher Papa while the other Indian, Parth Aggarwal, was swatted aside 2-6, 1-6 by USA’s Ronit Karki in the qualifiers. 

Though there were sparks here and there, the script for the three local hopes in the main draw contests too ended on a disappointing note. 

Facing seventh seed Maximus Jones of Thailand in the opening round, unseeded Sidharth Rawat did well to stay toe-to-toe with his opponent. However, Jones stepping up his game every time he was pushed to the brink proved pivotal that gave the American a 6-4, 7-6 (3) win. 

Wild card entrant Maan Kesharwani put up a fight to stretch Czech Republic’s Dominik Palan to the corners in the opening set. However, Palan held on to survive a tough tie-breaker and win the opening set 7-6 (10) before grabbing the second 6-4 to put an end to Kesharwani’s effort.

The last of the Indians to compete on the day was another wild card entrant Dev Javia against fifth seed Ognjen Milic of Serbia. And once again, a slow start in the first set before a surge in the second was only enough to take the 24-year-old as far as a 1-6, (5) 6-7 defeat. 

Later, Japan's Yuta Kawahashi scored an upset 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 win over eight seed Alex Hernandez of Mexico - who became the big casualty of the day.   

Results: Men singles (prefix denotes seeding): Round of 32: Dominik Palan (Cze) bt WC-Maan Kesharwani (Ind) 7-6 (10), 6-4; 7-Maximus Jones (Tha) bt Sidharth Rawat (Ind) 6-4, 7-3; 5-Ognjen Milic (Srb) bt WC-Dev Javia (Ind) 6-1, 7-6 (5); Yuta Kawahashi (Jpn) bt 8-Alex Hernandez (Mex) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. 

Final qualifying round: Alt-Christopher Papa (USA) bt Adil Kalyanpur (Ind) 5-7, 6-3, 6-3; 6-Ronit Karki (USA) bt Alt-Parth Aggarwal (Ind) 6-2, 6-1; 1-Alastair Gray (GBR) bt Volodymyr Iakubenko 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4); 7-Ryotaro Taguchi (Jpn) bt 4-Naoya Honda (Jpn) 3-6, 7-5, 6-3; 2-Taiyo Yamanaka (Jpn) bt Tomohiro Masabayashi (Jpn) 6-2, 6-1; 9-Aditya Vishal Balsekar (Ind) bt 5-Grigoriy Lomakin (Kaz) 6-3, 7-5.