Intikhab Ali upsets top seed Aditya Khanna to enter Jayant Roy Memorial ITF Tennis tournament semis

Intikhab Ali pulled off a huge upset to storm into the semi-finals of the Jayant Roy Memorial $ 400 ITF Mumbai Tennis tournament at the MSLTA courts on Sunday.

Unseeded Intikhab Ali caused a major upset in the men’s 40 plus category, accounting for top seed Aditya Khanna in the quarter-finals.

Using guile and power in equal doses, Mumbai’s Intikhab, an experienced coach, wore down the much fitter-looking Aditya Khanna from Delhi, winning 6-3, 6-2.

MSLTA Secretary Sunder Iyer (2nd from L) felicitated Tournament Director Nikhil Rao (2nd from R) and other players at the MSLTA on Sunday. (Pic credit: MSLTA)

Intikhab will face fourth seed Ramzan Shaikh for a spot in the final

In the semi-finals, Intikhab will take on fourth seed Ramzan Shaikh, who got the better of sixth seed Badri Vishal 6-2, 6-4. Also advancing to the last four were second seed Narendra Choudhary and third seed Kamlesh Shukla with straight set wins over Riyaz Ahmed and Ajay Vaswani, respectively.

The men’s 35 plus singles saw former pros Yannick Nedlord and Ranjeet Murugesan book their places in the last four with straight wins over their respective rivals.

Yannick ousted Ganesh Devkhile, while Ranjeet prevailed over Aditya Sanghvi. Also making the last four was second seed Sandeep Pawar with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Vinoy Parakunnil.

Intikhab Ali in action at the Jayant Roy Memorial ITF at the MSLTA on Sunday. (Pic credit: MSLTA)

Results

Men’s singles 35 plus (Quarter-finals)

Yannick Nelord (IND) bt Ganesh Devkhile (IND) 6-3, 6-1

Ranjeet Murugesan (IND) bt Aditya Sanghvi (IND) 6-0, 6-0

Sandeep Pawar (IND) bt Vinoy Parakunnil (IND) 6-3, 6-4

Vikas Choudhari (IND) bt Ribhaskar Thoudam (IND) 6-2, 6-4

Men’s doubles 35 plus (Quarter-finals)

Anand Moorthy (IND)/Aditya Sanghvi (IND) bt Ganesh Devkhile (IND)/Milind Marne (IND) 6-0, 6-2

Ravindranath Pandey (IND)/Vikas Choudhari (IND) bt Vinoy Parakunnil (IND)/Sandeep Pawar (IND) 6-1, 6-2.

Men’s singles 40 plus (Quarter-finals)

Kamlesh Shukla (IND bt Ajay Vaswani (IND) 6-2, 6-2

Intikhab Ali (IND) bt Aditya Khanna (IND) 6-3, 6-2

Narendra Singh Choudhary (IND) bt Riyaz Ahmed (IND) 6-3, 6-1

Ramzan Shaikh (IND) bt Badri Vishal (IND) 6-2, 6-4.

Men’s doubles 40 plus (Quarter-finals)

Ashish Khanna (IND)/Dilip Mohanty (IND) bt Ameet (IND)/Siddharth Sirohiya 6-0, 6-0

Intikhab Ali (IND)/Girish Mishra (IND) bt Aakash Kale (IND)/Rohan Manik (IND) 6-1, 6-3

Kamlesh Shukla (IND)/Mandar Wakankar (IND) bt Gautam Padmanabhan (IND)/Hiroshi Takei (JPN) 6-1, 6-3.

Men’s singles 50 plus (Semi-finals)

Rajesh Ganapathy (IND) bt Dinesh Laungani (IND) 6-0, 6-2

Neelkanth Damre (IND) bt Pravin Jadhav (IND) 6-2, 2-1 (Conceded)

Men’s doubles 50 plus (Semi-finals)

Rajesh Ganapathy (IND)/Rvrk Ranga Rao (IND) bt Bharat Singh (IND)/ Nirmal Wadhwani (IND) 6-0, 6-0

Kankaria N (IND)/Salvi D (IND) bt Anil Kapur (IND)/Dinesh Laungani (IND) 6-2, 6-1.