Bengaluru, Local hero Kriish Tyagi produced the biggest win of his fledgling career as the 19-year-old wild card entrant knocked out second seed Hamish Stewart of Great Britain to storm into the semifinals of the Karnataka Open ATP Challenger event, here on Thursday.
Ranked 1332 in the world, Kriish produced a fearless display to overcome the vastly experienced Stewart, ranked 328, 7-6, 5-7, 6-4 in a gripping contest that lasted two hours and 40 minutes.
Playing in front of an energetic home crowd, Kriish showed remarkable composure against Stewart’s powerful serving game.
The Briton blasted 19 aces compared to Kriish’s solitary ace, but it was the Indian youngster’s consistency and aggressive forehand play that ultimately made the difference. Stewart also struggled with control, committing 71 unforced errors against Kriish’s 35.
The opening set was a tense affair with both players trading momentum. Kriish earned the first break in the sixth game only for Stewart to break back immediately in the next. The Bengaluru teenager showed nerves of steel in the ninth game, saving three break points to stay ahead before the set eventually headed into a tie-break. Kriish held firm under pressure and converted his second set point to draw loud cheers from the home supporters.
The second set saw both players hold serve confidently and produce high-quality rallies from the baseline. Stewart finally found the decisive breakthrough in the 12th game to clinch the set 7-5 and force a decider.
Kriish once again raised his level in the third set, breaking Stewart in the fifth game after the Briton had initially saved three break points. Stewart responded immediately to level at 3-3, but the Indian youngster refused to back down. Capitalising on another error-strewn service game from Stewart, Kriish secured the crucial break in the ninth game before saving a break point in the following game and converting his first match point to complete a memorable upset.
“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.
Kriish thus became the lone Indian in the singles semifinals and will now face fourth seed Philip Sekulic of Australia, who defeated Thailand’s Maximus Jones 6-7, 6-3, 6-1 after recovering from a slow start.
Earlier, India’s Manish Sureshkumar bowed out after going down 3-6, 3-6 to former world No. 40 Ilya Ivashka, who used his experience and powerful groundstrokes to dominate the quarterfinal encounter.
Top seed Keegan Smith of the USA also entered the semifinals after edging past Serbia’s fifth seed Ognjen Milic 7-6, 6-3.
In the doubles quarterfinals, top seeds S D Prajwal Dev and Nitin Kumar Sinha kept Indian hopes alive with a straight-set win over Jeffrey Chuan En Hsu and Christopher Papa. Saketh Myneni and Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha also advanced after defeating the all-Indian pair of Sidharth Rawat and Manish Sureshkumar.
However, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Sergey Betov suffered a narrow super tie-break defeat against Petr Bar Biryukov and Grigoriy Lomakin.
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