Sports News | Poonacha Stuns Top Seed Nagal in Pune ATP Challenger

Pune, Feb 22 (PTI) Indian wildcard entry Niki Poonacha pulled off a stunning victory over top seed and compatriot Sumit Nagal to move to the quarterfinals of the ATP Challenger 100 international tournament here on Thursday.

Poonacha joined Sasikumar Mukund in the quarterfinals after he defeated the much-fancied Nagal 6-4, 6-3, their clash lasting over one hour and nine minutes.

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In the contest played at the Mahalunge Balewadi Stadium, Nagal was leading 4-2 in the first set before Poonacha came back fighting to level the scores and eventually clinch a famous win for himself to make his first-ever quarterfinal at this level.

In the quarterfinals, Poonacha, who made his debut in India's recent Davis Cup fixture against Pakistan in Islamabad, will take on seventh-seeded Dave Sweeny from Australia.

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Sweeny defeated Poland's Maks Kasinowski 6-4, 6-1.

Two Indian pairs qualified for the doubles semifinals.

The duo of Arjun Kadhe and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan notched up a 6-4, 7-6 win over Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner of Germany to move into the final four.

Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni, coming off title wins in the Challengers at Chennai and Bengaluru in the last two weeks, recorded their 10th consecutive victory.

They registered a 6-2, 6-7(4), 10-2 victory over the pairing of Duje Ajdukovic (Croatia) and Enrico Dalla Valle (Italy).

Mukund, meanwhile, will take on the third-seeded Australian player Adam Walton in the quarterfinal.

In another singles' match, Ramanathan was defeated by Russia's Alexey Zakharov 6-4, 6-4 in the contest lasting one hour and 27 minutes.

Zakharov will now take on Ajdukovic in the quarterfinals, who brushed aside the threat from USA's Tristan Boyer 6-1, 6-2.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)