Asian junior champion Nitin Kumar Sinha survived three matchpoints before beating Sho Shimabukuro of Japan 3-6, 7-6(8), 7-5 in the pre-quarterfinals of the $25,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament here on Wednesday.
The 19-year-old Nitin saved the matchpoints at 3-6 in the second set tie-break and then converted the third setpoint to force the decider. Nitin was also down 1-3 in the third set but fought his way back by converting both breakpoints that he forced in the set.
Nitin had nine aces and six double faults in the match that lasted two hours and 47 minutes. He converted three of six breakpoints in the match in which he won 120 points, the same as his opponent who converted four of 11 breakpoints.
Karunuday Singh and Niki Poonacha also made the quarterfinals. Aryan Goveas, however, lost his way from being 40-15 in the 12th game of the second set and after having won the first set against Michael Look of Australia.
In the $25,000 ITF women’s event in Thailand, Y. Pranjala moved into the singles quarterfinals and the doubles semifinals with Rutuja Bhosale. However, top seed Karman Kaur Thandi was beaten 7-6(4), 7-6(8) by Wang Xiyu of China in the second round.
Karman failed to capitalise on a 4-2 lead in the second set and a subsequent setpoint in the tie-break.
The results: $150,000 Challenger, Jinan, China: First round: Miliaan Niesten (Ned) & Sasi Kumar Mukund bt Nikola Milojevic (Srb) & Hiroki Moriya (Jpn) 6-1, 6-3.
$25,000 ITF men, Jakarta: Second round: Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Sho Shimabukuro (Jpn) 3-6, 7-6(8), 7-5; Daniel Nolan (Aus) bt Mohit Mayur 6-2, 6-2; Michael Look (Aus) bt Aryan Goveas 2-6, 7-5, 6-2; Karunuday Singh bt Matthew Romios (Aus) 6-7(5), 6-1 6-4; Niki Poonacha bt Aaron Schmid (Sui) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Doubles: First round: Congsup Congcar (Tha) & Connor Farren (US) bt Courtney John Lock (Zim) & Aryan Goveas 6-3, 5-7, [10-3]; S.D. Prajwal Dev & Mohit Mayur bt Charles Roberts (Tha) & Armando Soemarno (Ina) 4-6, 6-3, [10-5]; Francis Casey Alcantra (Phi) & Kaito Uesugi (Jpn) bt Kunal Anand & Karunuday Singh 7-5, 4-6, [10-8].
$15,000 ITF men, Sintra, Portugal: First round: Terence Das bt Pablo Vivero Gonzalez (Esp) 6-3, 6-2; Julien Eon (Fra) bt Adil Kalyanpur 4-6, 6-4, 7-5. Doubles: First round: Francisco Cabral (Por) & Alexandre Tsuchiya (Bra) bt Gilad Tamar (Issr) & Rishabdev Raman 6-1, 6-2.
$25,000 ITF women, Nonthaburi: Second round: Wang Xiyu (Chn) bt Karman Kaur Thandi 7-6(4), 7-6(8); Y. Pranjala bt Hua-Chen Lee (Tpe) 6-3, 6-1. Doubles: Quarterfinals: Rutuja Bhosale & Pranjala bt Genevieve Lorbergs & Kaylah Mcphee (Aus) 6-0, 7-5.