Sasikumar enters the last eight

Mukund Sasikumar emerged as the lone Indian to progress into the quarterfinals of the S.M. Krishna Memorial Open here on Wedneday.

A consistent Sasikumar (world no. 524) took out Japanese qualifier Taiyo Yamanaka 6-4, 7-6(1) in the round-of-16. 

The experienced Sasikumar struck a decisive break in the 10th game to wrap up the opening set. In the second set, the 29-year-old Sasikumar reserved his best for the tie-break.

Sasikumar, alongside Adil Kalyanpur, also reached the doubles quarterfinal with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Dominik Palan (Czech Republic) and Digvijaypratap Singh.

Teenage wild card Kriish Tyagi, who reached the semifinal of the Karnataka Open ATP Challenger here last week, went down to third seed Hamish Stewart 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. 

Manish Sureshkumar, who stunned top seed and Karnataka Open champion Keegan Smith in the first round, lost to former world no. 40 Ilya Ivashka 1-6, 1-6.

Sidharth Rawat’s campaign ended against sixth seed Ognjen Milic (Serbia), who recorded a 6-3, 6-1 win.

The results: Round-of-16: Mukund Sasikumar bt Taiyo Yamanaka (Jpn) 6-4, 7-6(1); Alastair Gray (GBR) bt Dominik Palan (Cze) 6-3, 7-6(2); Ilya Ivashka bt Manish Sureshkumar 6-1, 6-1; Hamish Stewart (GBR) bt Kriish Tyagi 4-6, 6-4, 6-3; Alex Hernandez (Mex) bt Naoya Honda (Jpn) 5-7, 7-5, 6-4; Mitsuki Wei Kang Leong (Mas) bt Yusuke Takahashi (Jpn) 6-3, 6-2; Ognjen Milic (Srb) bt Sidharth Rawat (Ind) 6-3, 6-1; Petr Bar Biryukov bt Leo Vithoontien (Jpn) 7-6(4), 6-4.