India’s SD Prajwal Dev made his way into the singles pre-quarterfinals of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Mysuru Open 2023 with a 6-4, 7-5 win over compatriot S Abhinav Sanjeev at the Mysore Tennis Club on Wednesday.
Prajwal was scheduled to meet experienced Indian player Ramkumar Ramanathan, who was seeded fifth here, but the latter had to withdraw from the tournament owing to an injury, as per a press release from Mysuru Open. Prajwal, the 26-year-old Mysuru lad, will face his countryman Vishnu Vardhan in the Round of 16.
The USD 25,000 event is being hosted by the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA). But the biggest shock of the day came when unseeded Briton George Loffhagen, a world number 182, shocked top-seeded Nam Hoang Ly of Vietnam 6-3, 6-4. However, the second-seeded Oliver Crawford of the USA and Oriov Vladyslav of Ukraine had better fortunes on the day, advancing to the pre-quarterfinals.
Crawford had little trouble in vanquishing Manish Ganesh, a wildcard entrant from India, with a 6-1, 6-3 victory. But Vladyslav faced stiff challenge from India’s Niki Poonacha before emerging a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victor. Eighth-seeded Australian Ellis Blake too booked a berth in the pre-quarterfinals after his Indian opponent Siddharth Vishwakarma, a qualifier, withdrew from the match while leading 2-0 in the first set. Fourth-seeded Mukund Sasikumar took to court late in the evening against Serbia’s Boris Butulija.