TENNIS – India’s Manas Dhamne took down qualifying’s top seed Benjamin Hassan from Lebanon in a three-set thriller yesterday as the fifth edition of the Bahrain Open Tennis Challenger got underway with the first round of singles qualifiers.
The prestigious tournament is part of this year’s calendar on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Challenger Tour, and it is a Challenger 125 category event, offering $225,000 in total prize money – up from last year’s purse of $200,000.
The competition is being organised in co-operation between the Police Sports Association and the Police Officers Club.
Dhamne battled back from a set down to stun his opponent 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3.
He will next be facing Norwegian Viktor Durasovic for the right to earn one of six available berths in the singles main draw.
Durasovic overcame Italy’s Alexandr Binda 6-3, 6-3 in another encounter in yesterday’s qualifying opening round.
Also yesterday, Kazakhstan’s Beibit Zhukayev claimed a hard-fought and well-deserved victory over Egyptian Fares Zakaria 7-5, 6-4.
Bulgarian Dimitar Kuzmanov defeated Greek wild card Petros Tsitsipas 6-3, 7-5.
Czech player Hynek Barton followed suit in his clash with American Dali Blanch.
Barton trailed by a set but staged a strong comeback, turning the match in his favour to win 0-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Bahraini wild card Elyas Abdulnabi was defeated by Lithuanian Edas Butvilas in straight sets 6-1, 6-2.
Slovenian Lukas Pokorny delivered a resilient performance in a 7-6 (4), 6-2 win over Georgian Saba Purtseladze.
Uzbek Sergey Fomin defeated Italian Enrico Dalla Valle 6-1, 6-2. Austrian Neil Oberleitner won against Romanian Radu Albot 6-1, 6-4; and Turkish player Yanki Erel was a 6-4, 6-3 victor against Russian Alibek Kachmazov.
Mert Alkaya, also from Türkiye, beat Italian wild card Alberto Bronzetti, who retired due to injury after Alkaya won the first set 6-2; while Ukrainian Vadym Ursu battled past Mexican Alex Hernandez 6-3, 2-6, 6-2.
In the other matches in today’s second and decisive round of qualifying, which will determine five more to go through to the tournament proper, Zhukayev faces Ursu, Kuzmanov takes on Fomin, Butvilas plays Alkaya, Barton battles Erel, and Pokorny takes on Oberleitner.
Matches are scheduled to begin at 11am. All are welcome to attend at the Police Officers Club in Gudaibiya.
The six who qualify will complete the 32-strong main draw, which also includes 23 competitors – headlined by eight seeded stars who are all amongst the top 120-ranked players in the world – who are entered through their ATP singles rankings, along with three wild cards.
The series of world-class players are headed by world number 50 and number one seed Alexei Popyrin from Australia, world number 76 and second seed Mattia Bellucci from Italy, world number 77 and third seed Jacob Fearnley from the UK, and world number 84 and fourth seed Filip Misolic from Austria.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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