Kriish Tyagi Shocks 2nd Seed Hamish To Reach Karnataka Open Semifinals

Bengaluru teenager Kriish Tyagi reached the Karnataka Open ATP Challenger semifinals on Thursday. The 19-year-old wild card beat second seed Hamish Stewart of Great Britain. Tyagi won 7-6(7), 5-7, 6-4 at the SM Krishna Tennis Stadium. The match lasted two hours and 40 minutes.

World No. 1332 Tyagi became the only Indian left in the singles draw. Tyagi next played fourth seed Philip Sekulic of Australia. Sekulic beat Thailand’s Maximus Jones 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-1. Top seed Keegan Smith of the USA also advanced into the semifinals.

Tyagi handled Stewart’s serve with steady returns and firm baseline play. Stewart, ranked 328, hit 19 aces during the quarterfinal. Tyagi struck one ace. Stewart made 71 unforced errors in the match. Tyagi finished with 35, which helped keep pressure on Stewart.

The first set stayed tight with breaks traded in the sixth and seventh games. Tyagi then saved three break points in the ninth game. The set moved into a tie-break with momentum shifting often. Tyagi stayed calm under pressure there. Tyagi sealed the set on a second set point.

Both players held serve for most of the second set. Rallies stayed mainly from the baseline. Stewart found the key opening late in the set. Stewart broke in the 12th game to take it 7-5. The result pushed the contest into a deciding set.

Tyagi earned three break points in the fifth game of the third set. Stewart saved them first, but Tyagi still broke. Stewart then broke back to level at 3-3. Tyagi broke again in the ninth game after more Stewart errors. Tyagi saved a break point next game, then converted a first match point.

"I'm very happy to be in my first Challenger semifinal. I have played big servers before and learnt that if I can make two good returns, they suddenly don’t know what to do. I just tried to stay solid and keep putting the ball back in play," said Kriish after the match.

India’s Manish Sureshkumar exited in the quarterfinals against Ilya Ivashka. Ivashka, a former world No. 40, won 6-3, 6-3. Keegan Smith edged Serbia’s fifth seed Ognjen Milic 7-6(5), 6-3. Sekulic recovered after losing the first set against Jones.

Karnataka Open doubles results and Indian pairs

In doubles, top seeds S D Prajwal Dev and Nitin Kumar Sinha won in straight sets. The pair beat Jeffrey Chuan En Hsu and Christopher Papa. Saketh Myneni and Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha also moved into the semifinals. They defeated Sidharth Rawat and Manish Sureshkumar in two sets.

Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Sergey Betov lost a close match to Petr Bar Biryukov and Grigoriy Lomakin. The score was 4-6, 7-5, 10-8 in a super tie-break. The semifinals and finals of the Karnataka Open were set for live telecast on DD Sports. Pictures from the event were credited to Deepthi Indukuri / KSLTA.

Tyagi’s win over Stewart set up a semifinal against Sekulic, with Smith meeting Ivashka. Indian interest in doubles stayed strong through two all-Indian semifinal spots. Nedunchezhiyan and Betov fell short in a tight super tie-break. DD Sports was scheduled to show the Karnataka Open semifinals and finals live.