MANDYA, January 10, 2024 (Press Release)

Karan Singh of India won a long battle against seventh seed Tsung-Hao Huang of Chinese Taipei to make it to the second round of the PET ITF Mandya Open. The 20-year-old scripted a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory on a day when Indians faced a bag of mixed luck at the PET Stadium on Wednesday.

The newest face in the Indian Davis Cup team and local favourite eighth seed SD Prajwal Dev squandered away his chances after being three match points up in the final set and went down to Yunseok Jang of South Korea 2-6, 7-5, 5-7 in a battle that lasted over three hours. In the other upset of the day, Thijmen Loof of the Netherlands sent home sixth seed M Rifqi Fitriadi of Indonesia 7-6 (5), 1-6, 6-1.

The other Indians to advance to the round of 16 included fourth seed Sasikumar Mukund who beat country mate Kabir Hans in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 while former Davis Cupper Vishnu Vardhan saw the back of Austrian David Pichler with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 victory. Madhwin Kamath also made it to the second round with a 6-3, 7-6 (6) victory over Kazakh Grigoriy Lomakin.

With most of the matches going to the wire, three matches were stopped half-way between owing to bad light.

Results Singles (Round of 32)

Yunseok Jang (KOR) bt 8-SD Prajwal Dev 6-2, 5-7, 7-5; 5-Nam Hoang Ly (VIE) bt Q-Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan 6-2, 6-3; 4-Sasikumar Mukund bt Kabir Hans 6-3, 6-4; Mitsuki Wei Kang Leong (MAS) bt Q-Rishi Reddy 4-6, 6-3, 7-5; Ofek Shimanov (ISR) BT Q-Shivank Bhatnagar 6-2, 6-4; 1-Kris Van Wyk (RSA) bt Q-Faisal Qamar 6-1, 7-6 (2); Thijmen Loof (NED) bt 6-M Rifqi Fitriadi (INA) 7-6 (5), 1-6, 6-1; 3-Orel Kimhi (ISR) bt Rishab Agarwal 6-3, 4-6, 6-2; Karan Singh bt 7-Tsung-Hao Huang (TPE) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2; Q-Vishnu Vardhan bt David Pichler (AUT) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4; Q-Madhwin Kamath bt Grigoriy Lomakin (KAZ) 6-3, 7-6 (6); Manish Sureshkumar Vs. 2-Giles Hussey (GBR) 6-7 (4) (interrupted); Siddhant Banthia Vs. Jelle Sels (NED) 4-6 (interrupted); Ishaque Eqbal Vs. Matt Hulme (AUS)  7-6 (4), 2-2 (interrupted).