BENGALURU/STARNBERG, February 16, 2022
The two seeds in Wednesday’s action – top seed Aleksandar Vukic and sixth favourite Max Purcell, both from Australia – registered contrasting wins to advance to the quarterfinals of the Bengaluru Open 2 ATP Challenger hard-court event held at the KSLTA Courts. While Vukic brushed aside the challenge of Great Britain’s Jay Clarke in straight sets 6-1, 6-3, Australian Open doubles finalist Purcell struggled past his compatriot Marc Polmans with a 7-6(7), 4-6, 6-2 victory.
World No. 176 Purcell, who had played another rival from Down Under Jason Kubler in the first round, did face some strong competition from Polmans. Both of them broke each other’s serves in the third and fourth games with Polmans breaking once again in the seventh game to lead 4-2. Purcell came back strongly, winning the next four games to lead 6-5 and was serving for the set when his opponent broke his serve and pushed the set into tie-breaker, which he won 9-7.
The second set saw Polmans getting an upper hand by galloping to a 3-0 lead with breaks in the first and third, but his fellow countryman returned the favour in the next three games and held the 7th game to gain a 4-3 lead. However, the 24-year-old Polmans, took advantage of Purcell’s mistakes and won the next three games to bag the set 6-4.
The decider also proved to be a humdinger with both players going hammer and tongs. Purcell was up 3-0 when his opponent came back to win two games on the trot but the better ranked player showed his mettle when it mattered to close out the match winning three consecutive games.
Meanwhile Vukic completely dominated the proceedings against his British opponent and raced to a 5-1 lead with breaks in the 4th and 6th game. The 25-year-old Vukic’s strong down-the-line shots almost shocked Clarke and by the time he could find an answer to his rival’s attack, he had already lost the first set. He did put up a little resistance in the second set, especially in the fourth game where he broke the World No. 135’s serve. However, he could not sustain the form as he lost serves in the 7th and 9th game and succumbed easily in exactly an hour.
Local wild card entries SD Prajwal Dev and Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha brought cheers to the Indian camp when they overcame the better-ranked Canadian-Japanese combination of Steven Diez and Rio Noguchi to post a 6-2, 6-4 victory en route to the quarterfinals of the doubles event.
Also advancing to the stage of the final eight teams was the all Indian pair of Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan, who captured the doubles title at the Bengaluru Open 1 last week.
The action at Bengaluru Open 2 ATP Challenger gets exciting. Watch your favourite players in action As we bring you the matches lines up for Thursday. #KSLTA #ATP #BlrOpen2022 #tennis #tenniskarnataka #challengertour pic.twitter.com/Aj8HZFikn4
— Bengaluru Tennis Open (@BlrTennisOpen) February 16, 2022
Wednesday Results
Singles – Second Round
6-Max Purcell (AUS) bt Marc Polmans (AUS) 7-6 (7), 4-6, 6-2; Mathias Bourgue (FRA) bt Steven Diaz (CAN) 6-3, 6-4; Dimitar Kuzmanov (BUL) bt Alexandre Muller (FRA) 6-4, 6-1; 1-Aleksandar Vukic (AUS) bt. Jay Clarke (GBR) 6-1, 6-3.
Doubles – Second Round
1-Alexander Erler (AUT)/Arjun Kadhe (IND) bt Alt-Bogdan Bobrov (RUS(/Dominik Palan (CZE) 6-0, 6-3; Enzo Couacaud (FRA)/Andrew Harris (AUS) bt Raul Brancaccio (ITA)/Johan Nikles (SUI) 6-4, 6-2; Marcos Kalovelonis(GRE)/Toshihide Matsui (JPN) bt PR-Anirudh Chandrasekar (IND)/N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) 7-5, 7-6 (3); WC-SD Prajwal Dev (IND)/Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND) bt Steven Diez (CAN)/Rio Noguchi (JPN) 6-2, 6-4; 3-Saketh Myneni (IND)/Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt Yuki Bhambri (IND)/Divij Sharan (IND) 6-1, 7-5.
