Marcora upsets Paire, Kwan beat Prajnesh, enters quarters at TATA OPEN

Pune, 6 February : Fourth-seeded Kwan Soon-woo chalked out a hard-fought 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) win against Prajnesh Gunneswaran to move into the quarter-finals as Indian challenge came to an end in the singles at the third of Tata Open Maharashtra at Mhalunge Balewadi Stadium here on Thursday.

Later in the other round-of-16 singles match, World No. 174 Italy’s Roberto Marcora stunned top-seeded and World No. 19 Benoit Paire with a dominating 6-4, 6-4 win.

Despite losing the first set, the India No. 1 put a brilliant show in attempt to comeback which saw the second set going into decider. However, World No. 88 Soon-woo held his nerves in the tie-breaker to score crucial points and wrapped up the match.

Prajnesh, who entered the South Asia’s only ATP Tour tournament with a direct entry in the main draw, denied his opponent match points on a couple of occasions.

Earlier Sumit Nagal, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sasikumar Mukund and Arjun Kadhe lost their respective matches in the opening round.

Australia’s James Duckworth held his nerves during thrilling three-set 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 over Taro Daniel. Despite losing the first set, the sixth seeded Duckworth made timely comeback to win the hard-fought second set. However, the Australian had continued the momentum to win the decider easily to complete victory. Duckworth will face Marcora in the semi-finals.

In doubles category, pair of Romain Arneodo and Andre Begemann caused a major upset in the tournament as they knocked out top-seed pair of Robin Haase and Robert Lindstedt with a thrashing 6-3, 6-3 win to enter the semi-finals.

However, third seeded Jonathan Erlich and Andrei Vasilevski also made their way into the last four. Erlich-Vasilevski had fought hard before registering 5-7, 6-1, 10-8 win against Italian pair of Stefano Travaglia and Paolo Lorenzi.
Results:
Singles: James Duckworth (AUS) bt Taro Daniel (JPN) 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (8-6), 6-3; Kwon Soon-woo (KOR) bt Prajnesh Gunneswaran 6-3, 7-6 (7-5); Egor Gerasimov (BLR) bt Nikola Milojevic (SRB) 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles: Jonathan Erlich (ISR)-Andrei Vasilevski (BLR) bt Stefano Travaglia (ITA)-Paolo Lorenzi (ITA) 5-7, 6-1, 10-8;
Romain Arneodo (MON)-Andre Begemann (GER) bt Robin Haase (NED)-Robert Lindstedt (SWE) 6-3, 6-3.