Sekulic stops Tyagi, to meet Smith in final

Philip Sekulic snapped Kriish Tyagi’s fine run with a facile 6-0, 6-2 victory in the Karnataka Open ATP Challenger semifinal at the S.M. Krishna Tennis Stadium here on Friday.

Sekulic (World no. 357), the fourth seed, dominated his wildcard opponent from start to finish. Forehand and backhand winners flew from the Australian’s racquet, while Tyagi struggled to keep up.

On certain occasions, the Indian teenager — playing his first Challenger semifinal — did manage to prolong the point, but Sekulic’s immense firepower eventually had final say.

In the final on Saturday, Sekulic will face top-seed Keegan Smith, in what promises to be an engrossing encounter.

Smith passed a stern test from Ilya Ivashka in the other semifinal. Belarusian Ivashka, a former World no. 40, was a combative presence.

Ivashka had several animated chats with his team in the stands, and even made a long, heartfelt complaint about line calls not going his way.

The American, who used his 6’7” frame to generate tremendous bounce and power on his serves and was clinical with his volleys, won 6-4, 6-4.

Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha and Saketh Myneni ousted top-seeds Prajwal Dev and Nitin Kumar Sinha 7-5, 6-1 to enter the doubles final.

The results (semifinals):

Singles: Keegan Smith (USA) bt Ilya Ivashka 6-4, 6-4; Philip Sekulic (Aus) bt Kriish Tyagi 6-0, 6-2.

Doubles: Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha & Saketh Myneni bt Prajwal Dev & Nitin Kumar Sinha 7-5, 6-1; Petr Bar & Grigoriy Lomakin (Kaz) bt Adil Kalyanpur & Mukund Sasikumar 7-6(4), 7-6(4).