$162 K (+H) Bengaluru Challenger 2020

[sameerph]

Yes, 2-4 down in the second set now. Apart from slow first serve, looking out of rhythm. Not getting the range on his ground-strokes and hitting it either long or into the net.

[PKBasu]

Distressingly depressing disastrous day.

Sumit too loses. So 5 out of 6 Indians in the last-16 are out now, with just one set won among them...

[PKBasu]

Saketh breaks the gloom slightly, with a hard-fought doubles win:

[QF] Saketh Myneni/Matt Reid (IND/AUS) d. 1-C Hsieh/D Molchanov (TWN/UKR) 36 64 10-8

[jayakris]

Distressingly depressing disastrous day. Sumit too loses. So 5 out of 6 Indians in the last-16 are out now, with just one set won among them...

Uh oh... The Bengaluru effect is gone, and the grand slam effect kicked in.

[RohitG]

Praj was up 4-2 in the tiebreak and loses the first set from there. Almost every match I checked, there's always a linesman controversy or a ball kid not handling the balls well. Everybody has something or the other to argue with the umpire.

[PKBasu]

Inexplicable that he went from 4-2 to 5-7 in that tiebreak! Nothing is going right for us today...

And now it's falling apart for Prajnesh. He is already down 0-2 in the second set. We basically have a bunch of players who are going to be perennially in the 100-300 range. Breaking out of that is proving to be very tough (our players' bodies don't seem capable of taking them further).

[Rajiv]

aargh... set and a break down in the second.

Only the insignificant doubles title's would be coming for now and for future

[Rajiv]

Almost every match I checked, there's always a linesman controversy or a ball kid not handling the balls well. Everybody has something or the other to argue with the umpire.

This is nothing new and kind of used to it by now as it has been going on year on year and the tournament director has done nothing to put a stop to these unprofessional incidents, we watch so many challengers on livestream , but never see such happenings repeated year after year.

today in the first set of Prajnesh's match , a ball popped up from the adjoining court and the umpire did nothing to replay the point inspite Bonzi appealing vehemently

[RohitG]

So all 6 knocked out. 10 points for each. That's all they get from the home challenger. I often lament the fact that there are not many local tournaments but now that I think about it, 3 out of 52 weeks is better than having heartbreaks for say, double that amount.

[jayakris]

Never seen this kind of a bloodbath in an Indian event. I don't think all six Indians in R16 being knocked out has ever happened!

[PKBasu]

Utter humiliation to end a miserable day, as Prajnesh is bagelled in the second set. Indian tennis is NOT in a good place!

[PKBasu]

We are assured of at least one Indian being in the doubles final, as one SF will involve Purav/RamK taking on Saketh/Matt.

Leander now on court trying to stop the champions from ATP Pune last week. Paes/Ebden won the first set 7-5, but are now melting down in set 2, down 0-5, 0-30. And they are bagelled in that second set.

[PKBasu]

That was perhaps the crafty old veteran just cooling off before the kill, because last week's champions have been knocked out:

[QF] Leander Paes/Matthew Ebden (IND/AUS) d. 3-Christopher Rungkat/Andre Goransson (INA/SWE) 75 06 10-7

[jayakris]

That is a good win for Lee and Ebden.

[jaydeep]

A terrible terrible terrible day for the Indian singles ...

In the doubles, our all players win their respective quarter-finals ... Saki and Matt scored a comeback win over the first seed Molchanov and Hsieh ... Next, they r facing the 4th seed Purav and Ram, who scored a straight-sets win over Ferreira Silva and Milojevic ... Lee and Ebden scored an excellent win over the 3rd seed Goransson and Rungkat ... Next, they r facing the 2nd seed Erlich and Vasilevski.

[QF] Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Matt Reid (AUS) bt (1) Cheng-Peng Hsieh (TPE)/ Denys Molchanov (UKR) 36 64 10-8
[QF] (4) Purav Raja (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt Frederico Ferreira Silva (POR)/ Nikola Milojevic (SRB) 64 64
[QF] Matthew Ebden (AUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt (3) Andre Goransson (SWE)/ Christopher Rungkat (INA) 75 06 10-7

[SF] (4) Purav Raja (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Matt Reid (AUS)
[SF] Matthew Ebden (AUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs (2) Jonathan Erlich (ISR)/ Andrei Vasilevski (BLR)