Geoffrey Blancaneaux of France outplayed the second seed Adam Walton of Australia 6-3, 6-0 in the pre-quarterfinals of the Dafa News $82,000 Delhi Open Challenger tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on Thursday.
Walton struggled to find his rhythm right through the match. In contrast, Blancaneaux who had lost in the first round of the Bengaluru and Pune Challenger events over the last fortnight, was fluent and thrived in the conditions, with strong serves and fluent strokes.
In the quarterfinals, Blancaneaux will play qualifier Philip Sekulic of Australia.
In doubles, second seeds Arjun Kadhe and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan fought back against Constantin Kouzmine and Maxime Janvier, but the Frenchmen handled the climax nicely for a 7-6(4), 6-7(4), [10-6] victory in the quarterfinals.
The Indian pair led 4-2 in the super tie-break, but after being on par at 5-5, the French pulled away with a better game.
The other Indian pair of Nitin Kumar Sinha and Manish Sureshkumar lost 6-4, 6-4 to Germans Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner, who had knocked out the top seeds Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan earlier.
The results: Pre-quarterfinals: Tristan Boyer (USA) bt Dane Sweeny (Aus) 7-5, 6-3; Dalibor Svrcina (Cze) bt Samuel Ruggeri (Ita) 7-5, 6-2; Philip Sekulic (Aus) bt Evgeny Donskoy 6-3, 6-2; Geoffrey Blancaneaux (Fra) bt Adam Walton (Aus) 6-3, 6-0.
Doubles: Quarterfinals: Jakob Schnaitter & Mark Wallner (Ger) bt Nitin Kumar Sinha & Manish Sureshkumar 6-4, 6-4; Ray Ho (Tpe) & Calum Puttergill (Aus) bt Toshihide Matsui & Kaito Uesugi (Jpn) 6-4, 6-3; Piotr Matuszewski (Pol) & Matthew Romios (Aus) bt M Rifki Fitriadi (Ina) & Ryuki Matsuda (Jpn) 6-4, 7-5; Constantin Kouzmine & Maxime Janvier (Fra) bt Arjun Kadhe & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 7-6(4), 6-7(4), [10-6].
