Tennis: India’s Karan Singh wins singles title in ITF M15 Bali

Chandigarh: India’s Karan Singh clinched the men’s singles title at the ITF Men’s World Tennis Tour M15, which was played in Bali, Indonesia. This is Karan’s fourth career title and his third of the 2026 season — second in singles.

The fourth-seeded Indian (ATP 604) defeated the fifth seed Isaac Becroft of New Zealand in a closely contested final on hard courts, clinching a 7-5, 7-6(3) win to lift the title.

It was a phenomenal run for Karan, who trains at the Roundglass Tennis Academy (RGTA) and delivered a flawless week of tennis by winning the championship without dropping a single set. He began the campaign by defeating Indonesian qualifier Gunawan Trismuwantara 6-3, 7-5.

In the second round, he got the better of local wildcard Rafalentino Ali Da Costa 6-3, 6-2. In the quarterfinals, Singh continued his dominance, defeating another Indonesian wildcard, Nathan Anthony Barki, 6-1, 6-4.

In the semifinals, Karan was up against the seventh seed Ryotaro Taguchi of Japan. In a commanding performance, Karan got the better of the Japanese player, cruising to a 6-3, 6-3 straight-sets win to book his place in the final.

The singles victory in Indonesia marks a highly successful continuation of Karan’s 2026 calendar, coming just weeks after he clinched the doubles title at the ITF M15 Astana in Kazakhstan.

In August, partnering with Russia’s Martin Borisiouk, the unseeded pair battled through three consecutive match tiebreaks, including an upset over the top seeds in the semifinals, before dominating the local Kazakh pair of Danial Rakhmatullayev and Damir Zhalgasbay 6-3, 6-2 in the final.

Karan, who hails from Karnal in Haryana, has a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 388 achieved on 8 August 2025. He also has a career-high doubles ranking of No. 436 achieved on 28 July 2025.

The 23-year-old Karan has won one ATP Challenger doubles title at the 2024 Brazzaville Challenger with Florent Bax.

IANS