Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], February 26 : Defending doubles champions Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni commenced their 2025 Bengaluru Open journey with a straight sets win over Italian pair of Jacopo Berrettini and Enrico Dalla Valle at the KSLTA Courts on Wednesday.
Ramkumar and Myneni, the most successful doubles winners in the tournament with three titles each-two of them achieved together-beat their opponents 6-3, 7-6(4) in one hour and 14 minutes to make it to the quarterfinals.
Organised by the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA), the Bengaluru Open is an ATP Challenger 125 tournament with a prize pool of USD 200,000. It currently holds the distinction of being India's biggest ATP Tour event. The champion of this hard-court tournament will earn 125 valuable ATP ranking points.
Aiming to add to their Bengaluru Open success, Ramkumar and Myneni stormed to a 4-1 lead after breaking the serve of their rivals in the fourth game. They wrapped up the opening set in under 30 minutes but faced stiff resistance in the second, as Berrettini and Dalla Valle broke the home favourites in the sixth game. The Indians, however, broke back immediately before taking the subsequent tiebreaker for a 6-3, 7-6(4) victory.
Ramkumar and Myneni will next face Hynek Barton and Eric Vanshelboim, who edged past Johannes Ingildsen and Ivan Liutarevich 6-3, 1-6, 13-11 in the pre-quarters.
In other doubles results, top seeds Anirudh Chandrasekar and Ray Ho recorded a 6-4, 6-4 win over Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta and Khumoyun Sultanov to progress to the last eight. The Indian-Taiwanese pairing showcased its brilliant teamwork and game understanding, achieving crucial breaks in the ninth games of both sets to wrap up the win in an hour and 13 minutes.
Wild cards Adil Kalyanpur and Karan Singh, meanwhile, came from a set down to beat compatriots Nitin Kumar Sinha and Manish Sureshkumar in a three-set-thriller. Chasing the match after a 6-1 drubbing in the first set, Adil and Karan retaliated with a 6-2 score in the second to force a tiebreaker. Locked in at 4-4, the duo seized the upper hand before racing to a 10-4 win. Adil and Karan will next take on second seeds Blake Bayldon and Matthew Christopher Romios of Australia.
In the singles Round-of-16 ties of the day, Billy Harris continued to make the most of his second chance as he advanced to the quarters with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Czechia's Marek Gengel. Furthermore, Australia's James McCabe defeated Japan's Rio Noguchi 7-6 5-7 7-6(5) in a hard-fought battle. He will now fight it out with Nicolas Mejia in the last eight, following the Colombian's straight-sets win over Blake Ellis.
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