Delhi Open: Niki-Courtney start campaign with hard-fought win
Feb 12, 2025
New Delhi [India], February 12 : India's Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha and Zimbabwe's Courtney John Lock kicked off their Delhi Open 2025 doubles campaign with a hard-fought 2-6, 7(7)-6(5), 10-6 victory over Czech duo Marek Gengel and Dalibor Svrcina on Wednesday at the DLTA Complex on Wednesday.
The second seeds endured a tough opening set but fought back in a tense tiebreaker before sealing the win in a decisive match tiebreak.
Organised by the All India Tennis Association and the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA), the Delhi Open 2025 is an ATP Challenger 75 tournament played on hard courts with 100,000 US Dollars as prize money on offer. The winners of the singles and doubles events also rake in 75 crucial ATP points, as per a press release from DLTA.
Following the withdrawal of top seeds Blake Ellis and Tristan Schoolkate, Poonacha and Lock are now the highest-ranked pair remaining in the draw. Their replacements, India's Parth Aggarwal and Sidharth Rawat, fell in their opener to Enzo Couacaud and Kelsey Stevenson.
In the singles event, Mukund Sasikumar's run came to an end with a 6-4, 6-3 loss to Belgium's Michael Geerts in the round of 16. Meanwhile, third seed Tristan Schoolkate endured a gruelling, three-hour battle against Valentin Vacherot, eventually winning 7-6, 3-6, 6-4.
Qualifier Andre Ilagan's impressive run continued as the United States of America player stunned eighth seed Timofey Skatov with a 6-2, 6-3 victory. Furthermore, France's Kyrian Jacquet blanked Jay Clarke of the United Kingdom in a straightforward 7-5, 6-3 win.
In other doubles results, third seeds Clarke and Johannes Ingildsen eased past Siddarth Banthia and Parikshit Somani in straight sets, while Shintaro Mochizuki and Kaito Uesugi overcame Ramkumar Ramanathan and Karan Singh in a thrilling 3-6, 6-1, 10-7 contest.
Geerts also partnered up with compatriot and former Delhi Open semi-finalist Kimmer Coppejans in doubles to beat Denmark's August Holmgren and Elmer Moller. Kris Van Wyk and Eric Vanshelboim rounded out the day's action with a 6-4, 6-3 win over wild cards SD Prajwal Dev and Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta.
