Manish stuns Sultanov in the first round; Karan overturns Mukund

Manish Sureshkumar stages a remarkable comeback to defeat second seed Khumoyun Sultanov in ITF men's tennis tournament.

Manish Sureshkumar played gutsy and clawed back from the sight of defeat to knock out the second seed Khumoyun Sultanov of Uzbekistan 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the first round of the $25,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Tuesday.

Manish trailed 2-4 in the decider, but won the next four games, dropping a mere four points to close out the match. 

Earlier, the Uzbek was serving for the match at 6-4, 5-4, but Manish turned the tide by winning the next three games, holding serve in the 11th by capitalising on his fifth game point.

The 877th-ranked Manish had 11 aces in the match and converted six of seven break points in beating the 329th-ranked Uzbek.

In another upset, Karan Singh beat fourth seed S. Mukund 7-6(4), 6-1. Quite charged up to show his firepower, Karan fired nine aces and converted three of four break points.

After failing to serve out the first set in the tenth game, Karan did well to win six points on the trot in the eventual tie break from 1-4. He broke Mukund’s serve in the fourth and sixth games of the second set to race past him.

The results: Singles (first round): Evgeny Donskoy bt Shivank Bhatnagar 6-2, 6-0; Karan Singh bt S Mukund 7-6(4), 6-1; Manish Sureshkumar bt Khumoyun Sultanov (Uzb) 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.