Nagal, Myneni in Bengaluru Open quarters

BENGALURU:DEFENDING champion Sumit Nagal scored an emphatic win over Britain’s James Ward, while Saketh Myneni continued his resurgence with a grinding win over qualifier Youssef Hossam of Egypt in three sets in what turned out to be a great day for Indians in the second round matches of Bengaluru Open ATP Challenger Tour on Wednesday. Nagal and Myneni now face each other in quarter-finals.

The highlight of the day, however, was qualifier Sasi Kumar Mukund’s win over fancied Blaz Kavcic. Kavcic, who was once ranked as high as 68 in the world, retired in the second set trailing 1-3. This after Mukund had taken the first set 7-6(2) clearly punching above the weight.

PERSISTING

A relatively unknown entity, Mukund was on the backfoot when Kavcic, who was top seed here last year, broke him in the fifth game of the first set. But Mukund hung in there and won a break in the 10th game and then sealed the set 7-6(2). Kavcic by then was struggling with his knee and it showed as Mukund, who trains with Austrian Martin Spöttl, quickly went 3-1 up in the second set at which point Kavcic conceded. “It was a good first set. I tried to be patient and match him and after the first set he told me the knee was hurting,” Mukund said.

Nagal, who received a last minute wild card, looked comfortable in the middle ousting Ward 6-3, 7-6(4) in the second round. Nagal’s breakthrough win here last year was followed by a period of struggle as the youngster failed to settle with coaching team. In September Nagal started working with Serbian fitness coach Milos Galecic and the tie-up seems to be bearing fruit.