Keegan Smith gets top billing as Karan leads Indian Challenge at Karnataka Open
Bengaluru, May 10: India’s Karan Singh will headline the home challenge as the Karnataka Open gets underway at the SM Krishna Tennis Stadium from Sunday. The ATP Challenger 50 event offers a total prize purse of USD 63,000, with the singles winner set to pocket 50 ATP ranking points and USD 9,500 in prize money.
Seeded sixth, Karan faces Japan’s Kokoro Isomura in one of the key opening-round matches as Indian players look to make an impact in a strong international field.
Top seed Keegan Smith of the United States begins his campaign against a qualifier, while second seed Hamish Stewart takes on Australia’s Omar Jasika in a potentially tricky opener. Third seed Petr Bar Biryukov faces a qualifier, while fourth seed Philip Sekulic meets India’s Digvijaypratap Singh.
The remaining seeded players in the draw are Serbian fifth seed Ognjen Milic, Thailand’s seventh seed Maximus Jones and Mexican eighth seed Alex Hernandez. Milic opens against Indian wildcard Dev Javia, Jones takes on Sidharth Rawat, while Hernandez faces Japan’s Yuta Kawahashi.
Among the other Indians in action, S D Prajwal Dev faces Australia’s Joshua Charlton, while experienced campaigner Manish Sureshkumar will take on a qualifier in the opening round.
Wildcard entrant Maan Kesharwani has been drawn against Czech player Dominik Palan, while another wildcard Kriish Tyagi will face a qualifier. India’s Mukund Sasikumar has been handed a tough first-round clash against Malaysia’s Mitsuki Wei Leong.
The draw also features former ATP Tour regular Ilya Ivashka, who will square off against Chinese Taipei’s Kuan-Yi Lee in an interesting first-round encounter.
Meanwhile, the first round of the qualifying event was held on Saturday with players battling for the remaining spots in the main draw. The qualifiers are expected to add further depth to an already competitive field featuring a mix of rising stars, experienced Challenger players and a strong Indian contingent.
With valuable ATP points on offer and a packed international lineup, the Karnataka Open promises a week of high-quality tennis action in Bengaluru.
Results Qualifying Round-1
Pre-fix represents seeding and country in brackets
Alt-Christopher Papa (USA) bt 10-Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam (IND) 5-7, 6-3, 7-5
6-Ronit Karki (USA) bt WC-Aradhya Kshitij (IND) 6-3, 6-2
8-Volodymyr Iakubenko (UKR) bt-Aryan Lakshmanan (IND) 6-7 (6), 6-2, 6-3;
1-Alastair Gray (GBR) bt Alt-Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND)6-1, 6-4;
4-Naoya Honda (JPN) bt WC-Prakaash Sarran (IND)6-1, 6-1;
Alt Parth Aggarwal (IND) bt 12-Kabir Hans (IND) 6-3, 1-6, 6-3
Tomohiro Masabayashi (JPN) bt Sergey Betov 6-3, 2-6, 6-4;
5-Grigoriy Lomakin (KAZ) bt Alt-Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3
Adil Kalyanpur (IND) bt 3-Nitin Kumar Sinha (IND) 0-6, 6-4, 6-3;
7-Ryotaro Taguchi (JPN) bt Alt-Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta (IND) 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3;
2-Taiyo Yamanaka (JPN) bt WC-Gandharv Gourav Kothapalli (IND) 6-4, 6-2;
