Chennai: Former national champion Manish Suresh Kumar got the better of compatriot
and national runner-up Nitin Kumar Sinha in a close three-set match in the first round of the main draw matches of the BR Adityan ITF M25 Men’s International Championship 2025 held at the SDAT Tennis Stadium here on Tuesday evening.
Manish won 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 (4) in a tense match that stretched to the tie-breaker in the decider.
Manish started of well winning the first set, dropped the next rather tamely, before squeaking past his fourth seeded compatriot to advance to the second round.
In a match of long baseline duel, local lad Manish had a brilliant start and stroked with ease to outplay Nitin, winning the first set 6-2.
In the second set, however, Manish inexplicably dropped his level, allowing Nitin to dominate. Nitin played with renewed confidence and fluency to take the second set 6-2.
In the deciding third set, both players were engaged in long baseline rallies. In the end, the steady Manish clinched the tiebreak and moved into the second round.
He will now face the winner of top seed Ramkumar Ramanathan and lucky loser M. Kamath who are scheduled to play later toay.
In three other main draw matches, Ryuki Matsuda proved too good for fellow Japanese Yuta Kawahashi, winning in straight sets.
Meanwhile, another Japanese player, Yusuke Takahashi, seeded 5th, defeated Siddharth Vishwakarma in straight sets.
Third seed Karan Singh was in top form as he annihilated wildcard entrant Pranav Karthick, losing only two games.
Earlier in the day, unfinished qualifying matches were completed, with two more Indians Parth Aggarwal and Chirag Duhan, former junior champion, qualifying for the main draw.
Of the six doubles match, the standout result came from 4th seeds Vishnu Vardhan, former Davis Cup player and Siddharth Banthia, who displayed exquisite touch and class to defeat Sergey Fomin and Maxim Zhukov of Russia 6-3, 6-1.
Results:
Main Draw :
Singles: First round: (All Indians otherwise mentioned)
Manish Suresh Kumar bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(4)
Karan Singh bt Pranav Karthik 6-1, 6-1
Takahashi Y (Jpn) bt Vishwakarma 6-2, 6-2,
Ryuki Matsuda (Jpn) bt Yuta Kawahashi (Jpn) 6-2, 6-2.