BENGALURU, May 20, 2026 (by Anirudh Suresh)
A day that began with a lot of optimism for the home fans, with four Indian players in the Round of 16, ended in major disappointment as veteran Mukund Sasikumar ended the night as the sole Indian to book a place in the quarterfinals of the S.M. Krishna Memorial Open in Bengaluru.
Local hopefuls Manish Sureshkumar, Kriish Tyagi and Sidharth Rawat all bowed out in the Round of 16 as four of the top six seeds made it through to the final eight of the ATP Challenger 50 event at the S.M. Krishna Tennis Stadium on Wednesday.
After upsetting top seed and last week’s winner Keegan Smith in the first round, Sureshkumar was expected to bring the fight to Ilya Ivashka, who had incidentally beaten him 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinal of the Karnataka Open last week. Ranked 737 in the world, Sureshkumar entered the contest on center court as the clear underdog against the former world number 40 but had momentum and home support on his side.
However, what ended up unfolding was a beatdown as a ruthless Ivashka finished the match 6-1, 6-1 in exactly an hour. The 32-year-old Belarusian broke Sureshkumar a whopping five times in the match while conceding no break point of his own. And thus Ivashka, who made the semis last week, continued his good run in Bengaluru. Come the quarterfinal, he will take on Mexico’s Alex Hernandez, who got the better of qualifier Naoya Honda 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 in three tight sets.
On the adjacent Court 1, teenage wildcard Tyagi, who was a surprise semifinalist last week, took the first set against third seed Hamish Stewart and looked to be on his way to beating the Great Britain man for the second time in as many weeks. However, despite being up a break in both the second and third sets, the 19-year-old was unable to capitalize as he bowed out following a 6-4, 4-6, 3-6 loss. Stewart was visibly animated after the win as he unleashed a loud scream after avenging last week’s loss.
With the win, Stewart set up a mouth-watering quarterfinal clash against another teenager, sixth seed Ognjen Milic. The 18-year-old from Serbia did not break a sweat as he dominated the 529th ranked Rawat 6-3 6-1 to make it back-to-back ATP Challenger quarterfinal appearances.
The sole Indian victor on the day was 29-year-old Sasikumar, who battled past Japan’s Taiyo Yamanaka in a grueling two-setter. The straight set win was not-so-straightforward as Sasikumar needed almost two hours to complete a 6-4, 7-6(1) win. Despite being treated by the physio multiple times, it was the Indian star who showed more resilience and eventually emerged victorious after clinching a gruesome second set that lasted 75 minutes.
Sasikumar, in the quarters, will face second seed Alastair Gray who fended off the threat of the big-hitting Dominic Palan 6-3, 7-6(2). Fourth seed Petr Bar Biryukov and Mitsuki Wei Kang Leong will face-off in the other quarterfinal encounter.
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