Delhi Open
New Delhi, Feb 12: India’s Niki Poonacha and Zimbabwe’s Courtney John Lock kicked off their Delhi Open doubles campaign with a hard-fought three-set win over Czech duo Marek Gengel and Dalibor Svrcina here on Wednesday.
The duo of Poonacha and Lock won 2-6, 7-6 (5), 10-6 at the DLTA Complex here.
The second seeds endured a tough opening set but fought back in a tense tie-breaker before sealing the win in a decisive match tie-break.
Following the withdrawal of top seeds Ellis Blake and Tristan Schoolkate, Poonacha and Lock are now the highest-ranked pair remaining in the draw.
In the singles event, Mukund Sasikumar’s run came to an end with a 4-6, 3-6 loss to Belgium’s Michael Geerts in the round of 16.
Meanwhile, third seed Tristan Schoolkate endured a gruelling, three-hour battle against Valentin Vacherot, eventually winning 7-6, 3-6, 6-4.
American qualifier Andre Ilagan’s impressive run continued as he stunned eighth seed Timofey Skatov 6-2, 6-3. France’s Kyrian Jacquet beat Jay Clarke of the United Kingdom 7-5, 6-3.
In other doubles results, third seeds Clarke and Johannes Ingildsen eased past Siddarth Banthia and Parikshit Somani in straight sets, while Shintaro Mochizuki and Kaito Uesugi overcame Ramkumar Ramanathan and Karan Singh 3-6, 6-1, 10-7 in a thrilling contest.
Geerts also partnered up with compatriot and former Delhi Open semi-finalist Kimmer Coppejans in doubles to beat Denmark’s August Holmgren and Elmer Moller.
Kris Van Wyk and Eric Vanshelboim rounded out the day’s action with a 6-4, 6-3 win over wild cards SD Prajwal Dev and Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta. (PTI)
