Rawat, Bisht send seeds packing at Mandya Open tennis tourney

Indian Sidarth Rawat created the biggest upset of the Mysore Minerals Ltd Men's ITF Futures Mandya Open tennis tournament when he defeated No.2 seed Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan 6-4, 6-4, to move into the quarter-finals here Wednesday.

That the second seed from Tamil Nadu was taped up on his knee cannot take away the grit and determination that the Delhi player exhibited on centre court at the PET Sports Complex.

Fifth seed Mohit Mayur also made his exit, beaten 6-1, 6-1, by Ronit Singh Bisht who was in his elements and made his experienced opponent look ordinary with some precise and pleasing tennis.

Joining Rawat and Bisht in the quarter-finals were fourth seed Sasi Kumar Mukund, Jui Chen Hung of Chinese Taipei (6), Vishnu Vardhan (8), Karunuday Singh (3), Vinayak Sharma Kaza (7) and top ranked Frenchman Antoine Escoffier.

Murugesan and Mayur, having received top billing in the doubles event, pulled out allowing the Indo-Chinese Tapei pair of Sasi Kumar Mukund and Jui Chen Hung walk into the semis.

Results (Prefix denotes seeding, Indians unless stated):

Singles (2nd round): 4-Sasi Kumar Mukund bt Chandril Sood 6-1, 6-4; Sidarth Rawat bt 2-Ranjeet Virali Murugesan 6-4, 6-4; 6-Jui-Chen Hung (Tpe) bt Bhavesh Gour 6-1, 6-1; 8-Vishnu Vardhan bt Akash Wagh 7-5, 6-4; Ronit Singh bt 5-Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash 6-1, 6-1; 3-Karunuday Singh bt SD Prajwal 6-1, 6-3; 7-Vinayak Sharma Kaza bt Abdullah Shaik 6-2, 6-4; 1-Antoine Escoffier (Fra) bt Suraj R Prabodh 6-2, 6-2.

Doubles (Quarter-finals): Jui-Chen Hung (C Tpe) / Sasi Kumar Mukund w/o 1-Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash / Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan ; Haadin Bava / Tejas Chaukulkar bt Shotoro Goto (Jpn) / Kazuma Kawachi (Jpn) 6-3, 6-3; Anvit Bendre / Akash Wagh bt Maninder Singh / Siddarth Vishwakarma 6-4, 6-1; Chandril Sood, Lakshit Sood bt Sahil Gaware / Kunal Vazirani 6-2, 6-1.