Maha Open ATP Challenger: Niki Poonacha stuns top-seed Sumit Nagal

Niki Poonacha pulled off a brilliant victory against top seed and fellow countryman Sumit Nagal to move to the quarterfinals of the ATP Challenger 100 tournament on Thursday.

Poonacha, who entered the tournament as a wildcard with Sasikumar Mukund, defeated much-fancied Nagal 6-4, 6-3 in a clash that lasted over one hour and nine minutes.

In the contest played at the Mahalunge Balewadi Stadium, Nagal was leading 4-2 in the first set before Poonacha came back fighting to level the scores and eventually clinch a famous win for himself to make his first-ever quarterfinal at this level.

In the quarterfinals, Poonacha, who made his debut in India's recent Davis Cup fixture against Pakistan in Islamabad, will take on seventh-seeded Dave Sweeny from Australia.

Sweeny defeated Poland's Maks Kasinowski 6-4, 6-1.

In another singles match, Ramanathan was defeated by Russia's Alexey Zakharov 6-4, 6-4 in a contest lasting one hour and 27 minutes. Zakharov will now take on Ajdukovic in the quarterfinals, who brushed aside the threat from USA's Tristan Boyer 6-1, 6-2.

Two Indian pairs qualified for the doubles semifinals.

Indian pairs continued their good run as two of them qualified for the semi-finals of men's doubles.

The duo of Arjun Kadhe and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan notched up a 6-4, 7-6 win over Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner of Germany to move into the final four.

Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni, coming off title wins in the Challengers at Chennai and Bengaluru in the last two weeks, recorded their 10th consecutive victory.

They registered a 6-2, 6-7(4), 10-2 victory over the pairing of Duje Ajdukovic (Croatia) and Enrico Dalla Valle (Italy).