Kolkata, March 12 Abhinan Sanjeev of Tamil Nadu, ranked 22nd in the country, continued his impressive run as he defeated Rohan Mehra 7-6 (4) 7-5 to reach the quarterfinals in the Central Excise & CGST ITF M25 Kolkata 2026 tournament, here on Thursday.
However, the campaign ended for the unseeded young player from Manipur, Shanker Heisnam, who fought valiantly before losing to top-seeded Luca Castelnuovo of Switzerland 7-5, 6-2.
In the first set, Heisnam had a golden opportunity after breaking the top seed at 3-3, but he failed to capitalize on the advantage as he lost his serve in the very next game, allowing the score to level at 4-4.
At 5-6 on serve, Heisnam was broken again as the world-ranked 399 player played strongly to win the set.
In the second set, the left-handed Luca Castelnuovo proved too strong for the 19-year-old wild card entrant, winning the set 6-2.
Local player Ishaque Eqbal failed to live up to expectations as he could not compete against third-seeded Philip Sekulic from Australia, who won 6-2, 6-1 in just 73 minutes.
Siddharth Rawat, a member of the Davis Cup squad, gave a stunning display of precision and control against fourth-seeded Dominik Palan of the Czech Republic, with the Indian winning 6-2, 3-0 after the fourth seed conceded the match due to illness.
