Karan Singh defeats Aryan Shah to make singles main draw

Karan Singh earned his place in the Bengaluru Open 2025 singles main draw with a hard-fought 6-4, 7(8)-6(6) victory over Aryan Shah in the qualifiers at the KSLTA Courts on Monday.

The Indian tennis player, who made his Davis Cup debut during the World Group I Playoffs tie against Togo, displayed composure in a tense second-set tiebreak to wrap up the match against his compatriot in one hour and 15 minutes.

“I was simply holding my serve and trying to put pressure on his serve. He (Aryan) served really well. In the tiebreaker, I had some chances, but he came back really well,“ Karan Singh said after the match.

“At 7-6, he double-faulted, and that was that. It feels good to qualify, especially here in India, in front of all the people. The crowd is amazing and I am looking forward to the main draw matches,” he added.

The final round of qualifying in the Bengaluru Open 2025 tennis tournament also delivered a significant upset, with the top-seed and Delhi Open finalist Billy Harris crashing out following a 7(7)-6(4), 6-4 defeat against Petr Bar Biryukov.

However, second seed Ilia Simakin breezed past Japan’s Kokoro Isomura in just 48 minutes, winning 6-1, 6-1.

India’s Mukund Sasikumar was unable to join Karan Singh in the main draw, falling to Czechia’s Hynek Barton in a gruelling battle which ended 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in the latter’s favour.

Meanwhile, Spain’s Nicolas Alvarez Varona secured his spot with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over Hiroki Moriya.

With the main draw now set, Karan Singh will face Austria’s Jurij Rodionov in the first round.

His Davis Cup team-mate Ramkumar Ramanathan is set for a challenging opener against seventh seed Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan while teenager Manas Dhamne faces Biryukov.

In the early main draw round of 32 results, Colombia’s Nicolas Mejia caused an upset by knocking out fourth seed Elmer Moller 6-3, 6-4, while Japan’s Rio Noguchi advanced with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Justin Engel.

Wild card SD Prajwal Dev exited in the first round after this three-set loss to Marek Gengel while Blake Ellis progressed with a win over Michael Geerts.

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