Miljan Zekic ousts top seed James Duckworth

Miljan Zekic of Serbia edged out top seed James Duckworth of Australia 4-6, 6-4,7-6(2) in the pre-quarterfinals of the PMR Open $130,000 Challenger tennis tournament at the Balewadi Stadium on Thursday.

The champion of the last two tournaments in Chennai and Bengaluru, Max Purcell of Australia stayed on course with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Dimitar Kuzmanov of Bulgaria.

In doubles, Mukund Sasikumar and Vishnu Vardhan made the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Calum Puttergill and DAne Sweeny of Australia. 

Anirudh Chandrasekar and Vijay Sundar Prashanth also made the semifinals by beating the fourth seeds Petr Nouza and Purav Raja for the loss of four games. Anirudh and Vijay will play second seeds Maximilian Neuchrist and Arjun Kadhe in the semifinals.

The results:

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Miljan Zekic (Srb) bt James Duckworth (Aus) 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(2); Harold Mayot (Fra) bt Maximilian Neuchrist (Aut) 6-4 (retired); Max Purcell (Aus) bt Dimitar Kuzmanov (Bul) 6-2, 6-4; Francesco Maestrelli (Ita) bt Dane Sweeny (Aus) 6-7(2), 6-3, 7-5.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Mukund Sasikumar & Vishnu Vardhan bt Calum Puttergill & Dane Sweeny (Aus) 6-2, 6-3; Toshihide Matsui & Kaito Uesugi (Jpn) bt Boris Butulija (Srb) & Prajnesh Gunneswaran 7-5, 6-4; Anirudh Chandrasekar & Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Petr Nouza (Cze) & Purav Raja 6-2, 6-2; Maximilian Neuchrist (Aut) & Arjun Kadhe bt Rithvik Bollipalli & Niki Poonacha 6-1, 6-3.