Six Indians qualify for main draw

The main draw of the Cycle Pure Agarbathi ITF Mysuru Open 2023 was inaugurated at the Mysore Tennis Club (MTC) premises this morning in the presence of Dr. K.V. Rajendra, Deputy Commissioner (DC), Mysuru, as the guest of honour and Arjun Ranga, Managing Director, Cycle Pure Agarbathi and Alex Cherian, Joint Managing Director, Schevaran Laboratories Pvt. Ltd., as the chief guests. Also present were A.R. Alagappan, President, MTC and Peter Vijay Kumar, Tournament Director.

Six Indian players qualified for the main draw of the Cycle Pure Agarbathi ITF Mysuru Open 2023 after producing power-packed performances in the qualifying rounds yesterday.

The top seed of the qualifiers Siddharth Vishwakarma put up a dominating display to secure a 6-1, 6-2 victory against Deepak Anantharamu. Similar to Vishwakarma, Vishnu Vardhan also had an easy day at the office as he prevailed in two sets against Yash Chaurasia by a 6-1, 6-1 scoreline.

On the other hand, Faisal Qamar and Fardeen Quamar had to grind hard to secure their berths in the main draw. While Faisal beat Lakshit Sood by 7-6 (3), 7-6 (1), Fardeen ousted Pruchya Isaro of Thailand with a 3-6, 7-6 (3) [10-5] tie-breaker win.

Ishaque Eqbal and Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan were the other two Indians that advanced to the main draw after their respective opponents retired from the match due to injuries.

The USD 25,000 event is being hosted by the Karnataka Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA).

Today, eight Indians including Suraj Prabodh, Rishi Reddy, Madhwin Kamath, Sidharth Rawat, Karan Singh and Sandesh Kurale along with the qualifying winners Eqbal and Faisal kicked off the country’s campaign in the Singles main draw of the tournament.

Alongside Indians, Dali Blanch of the USA and Grigoriy Lomakin of Kazakhstan will also be in action. Meanwhile, Evgeny Donskoy withdrew from the tournament due to an injury.

Earlier in the day yesterday, Woobin Shin of South Korea and Mitsuki Wei Kang Leong of Malaysia also secured their places in the main draw after defeating Bharat Nishok Kumaran (6-2, 6-3) and Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam (6-4, 4-6 [10-7]) respectively.

The ongoing tournament marks the return of ITF tennis to Mysuru after 8 years and will take place at the Mysuru Tennis Club till April 2.

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