New Delhi
Shivank Bhatnagar got off to a hard start and sealed the match in the middle of the second set for a memorable 4-6, 7-6(3), 7-6(2) win over Ajay Malik in the first round of $15,000 ITF Men’s Tennis Got it Tournament at the DLTA Complex in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Shivank, who hit four aces in the match and converted two of the 10 breakpoints he forced, was down 2-4 in the second set before his fighting qualities came to the fore. It was a high-quality contest between two wild card entrants and Shivank handled the tie-breaker to pull off a two-and-a-half hour-long battle of wits.
Shivank will next take on the winner of the match between top seed Oliver Crawford of America and qualifier Sai Karthik Reddy Ganta.
In the only other main draw singles match, third seed Dalwinder Singh converted two of five breakpoints to beat Suraj Prabodh 6-4, 6-4.
16-year-old Aryan Shah won his third match in the qualifying event without losing a set and will challenge fifth seed Florent Bax of France in the main draw.
Result (first round):
Shivank Bhatnagar bt Ajay Malik 4-6, 7-6(3), 7-6(2); Digvijay Pratap Singh defeated Suraj Prabodh 6-4, 6-4.
Doubles (Pre-quarterfinals): Parikshit Somani and Manish Sureshkumar bt Kabir Hans and Oges were 6-4, 6-2; Yuta Kawahashi and Ryuki Matsuda (JPN) bt Ishaq Iqbal and Faisal Qamar 7-6(3), 6-2; Nitin Kumar Sinha and Vishnu Vardhan BT Raghav Jaisinghani and VM Ranjit 6-2, 6-1; Suraj Prabodh and Dalwinder Singh bt Chirag Duhan and Wubin Shin (Core) 7-6(5), 7-6(6); Rishabh Agarwal and Sai Karthik Reddy Ganta bt Adil Kalyanpur and Karan Singh 3-6, 6-3, [10-6], Florent Baix (Fr) and Nicolas Bybel (USA) bt Yash Chaurasia and Tushar Madan 6-1, 3-6, [10-2], Bharat Kumaran and Shashank Theerth bt Shahbaz Khan and Siddharth Vishwakarma 6-3, 6-1; Rithvik Bollipalli and Nikki Poonacha defeated Parth Agarwal and Madhavin Kamath 6-3, 6-0.
Qualifying Singles (3rd and Final Round): Madhavin Kamath beat Arjun Mahadevan 6-2, 6-1; Chirag Duhan bt Manish Ganesh 7-6(4), 6-2; Lakshya Sood bt Dhruv Hirpara 6-3, 6-2; Rohan Mehra bt Lakshya Gupta 6-2, 6-3; Aryan Shah bt Shahbaz Khan 6-4, 6-3; Sai Karthik Reddy Ganta bt Udit Kamboj 6-3, 6-4.