ITF Futures tennis tournament: Prajnesh, Balaji in contrasting wins

Bengaluru: The top seeds continued their dominance on Wednesday as they breezed into the quarterfinals at the F5 ITF Futures tennis tournament at the KSLTA courts.

Top seeded Prajnesh Gunneswaran made light work of Hong Kit Wong 6-2, 6-1 while second seed Sriram Balaji had to overcome a late fight-back from Siddarth Vishwakarma during his 6-2, 7-5 win. Vishnu Vardhan also registered a comfortable 6-2, 6-1 over Dakshineshwar Suresh.

Prajnesh broke his opponent from Hong Kong on the third game and wrapped up the first set 6-2 with minimum hassle. In the second, he broke in the first and fifth game, saved two break points in the sixth to wrap up the set, and match, 6-1.
Meanwhile, Balaji breezed through the first set 6-2 but found Vishwakarma in a more stubborn mood in the second. Vishwakarma broke the second seed to go 5-3 up but Balaji broke right back and held his serve to put the pressure back on the challenger.

Serving to stay in the match, Vishwakarma double faulted when on deuce and netted the following shot to surrender the match.

Earlier, Vishnu found no resistance from Suresh as the third seed powered his way in the last-eight. Among other seeds, Vijay Sundar Prashanth, seeded five, defeated Mohit Mayur 6-2, 6-3 while Sami Reinwein from Germany went the distance before prevailing against Paramveer Singh Bajwa 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

Results (second round): Singles: Vijay Sundar Prashanth (5) bt Mohit Mayur 6-2, 6-3; G Prajnesh (1) bt Hong Kit Wong (HK) 6-2, 6-1; Vishnu Vardhan (3) bt Dakshineshwar Suresh 6-2, 6-1; Sami Reinwein (Ger 6) bt Paramveer Singh Bajwa 6-3, 3-6, 6-1; Hadin Vava bt Rishab Agarwal 6-4, 6-4; Siddarth Rawat (7) bt Suraj Prabodh 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3); Karunaday Singh bt Mukund Sasi Kumar 7-6 (4), 6-3; Sriram Balaji (2) bt Siddarth Vishwakarma 6-2, 7-5.