Dhamne reaches Maha Open last-8

pune: Wildcard entrant and local player Manas Dhamne on Wednesday qualified for the men’s singles quarterfinals of the Maha Open ATP Challenger 75 tournament here.

Dhamne made it to the final eight after Belarus’ Ilya Ivashka, who was once ranked in the top 50, retired from the contest due to an injury while he was trailing 3-6. Dhamne will take on Croatia’s Duje Ajdukovic in the quarterfinal on Friday. Unseeded Ajdukovic, Alastair Gray of Great Britain and sixth seeded Italian Federico Cina were the other players to make the quarterfinals.

Ajdukovic produced a dominant performance to upset the fifth seeded Frederico Ferreira Silva of Portugal 6-2, 6-2. Britain’s Gray came back strong from being a set down to upset third seed Ilia Simakin 4-6, 7-6(7), 7-5 in two hours and 50 minutes. Italy’s Cina won 6-1, 6-4 over Japan’s Yuta Shimizu.