KPIT ATP Challenger: Sundar beats city’s Banthia to enter second round of qualifiers

Pune player Siddhant Banthia suffers defeat even after taking early advantage

Pune’s upcoming talent Siddhant Banthia failed to hold on the advantage and lost the match 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 5-7 against N Vijay Sundar Prashanth of Chennai in the first qualifying round of the KPIT MSLTA ATP Challenger at the at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati sports complex on Saturday.

Pune player Siddhant Banthia suffers defeat in the first qualifying round of the KPIT MSLTA ATP Challenger. (Rahul Raut/HT PHOTO)

It turned out to be the disappointing day for Banthia as Chennai player N Vijay Sundar Prashanth survived three match points to overcome Asian Junior Champion Banthia in a match lasting 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Banthia who had recently won the Asian Junior championship looked in control and looking to wrap the match, but some poor shot selection saw him lose grip from a commanding 5-4 (40-15) position to go down to the experienced Prashant.

N Sriram Balaji who made the event as an alternate capitalised on his lucky entry into the event to set up a close 6-7(7),6-4,7-6(4) win over Luke Saville of Australia in 2 hours 40 minutes to make it to the second round.

Dutch Player Miliaan Niesten outhit wildcard Dhruv Sunish 6-4, 6-3 Youssef Hossam of Egypt got past Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-3, 6-4 with ease while seventh-seeded Sanjar Fayziev of Uzbekistan was challenged in the second set by Sidharth Rawat before winning 6-1, 6-4.

Japanese Rio Noguchi was given a fight by Abhinav Shanmugam before winning 6-4, 6-4, while Danylo Kalenichenko of Ukraine defeated Jayesh Pungliya 6-3, 6-4.

Local wildcard Tejas Chaukulkar showed some promise winning the first set but eventually went down to Italian Francesco Vilardo losing 6-7 (7-5), 6-1, 6-0.

In the upsets of the day in a all-French match, Mick Lescure upset fourth-seeded Antoine Escoffier 7-5, 6-4 while Israel’s Ben Patael took out second-seeded Liam Broady Of Britain 6-3, 6-3 while Lucas Gerch of Germany came back from loss of the first set to upset third-seeded Zsombor Piros of Hungary 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Wild card for Kumar and Sasikumar

After giving first two wild cards to Pune’s Akshay Kadhe and Mumbai’s Aryan Goveas the organisers have awarded Manish Suresh Kumar and Mukund Sasikumar the remaining two wild cards for the tournament as Saketh Myneni who is the finals of the Bengaluru Open was awarded the special exempt and Sumit Nagal moved into the main draw as the last direct acceptance.

Results: (First qualifying round):

N.Sriram Balaji (Ind) bt Luke Saville (Aus) 6-7, 6-4, 7-6; Miliaan Niesten (Ned) bt wc-Dhruv Sunish (Ind) 6-4, 6-3; Mick Lescure (Fra) bt 4-Antoine Escoffier (Fra) 7-5, 6-4; N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (Ind) bt wc-Siddhant Banthia (Ind) 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 7-5; Youssef Hossam (Egy) bt Nitin Kumar Sinha (IND) 6-3, 6-4; Ben Patael (Isr) bt 2- Liam Broady (Gbr) 6-3, 6-3; Danylo Kalenichenko (Ukr) bt wc-Jayesh Pungliya (Ind) 6-3, 6-4; Francesco Vilardo (Ita) bt wc-Tejas Chaukulkar (IND) 6-7 (7-5), 6-1, 6-0; 7-Sanjar Fayziev (Uzb) bt Sidharth Rawat (Ind) 6-1, 6-4; Khumoyun Sultanov (Uzb) bt Kunal Anand (Ind) 6-3, 6-0; 5-Benjamin Hassan (Ger) bt Suraj Prabodh (Ind) 6-1, 6-2; Rio Noguchi (Jpn) bt Abhinav Shanmugam (Ind) 6-4, 6-4; Lucas Gerch (Ger) bt 3-Zsombor Piros (Hun) 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.