Kolkata, Jan 20 (.) Qualifier Mannan Ashok Agarwal survived a scare from of Junseo Jang from Korea in round one of the DKS ITF Juniors J200 World Ranking Tennis Tournament here on Tuesday.
On Day 2 of the main championship, Agarwal, ranked 21st in India in the Under 18 category played a little over three hours to pip Korea’s Jang, ranked within the top 200 in the world, at the red clay courts of the DKS Sports Complex.
Agarwal, after a 1-6 humiliation in the opening set, turned the game around to level the match by claiming the second set at 6-4. In the decider, Mannan refused to offer free points from the very beginning as he surged to a 5-2 lead in no time.
At this juncture, Agarwal made some costly errors, thereby drooping serve. It was here at 5-3 where the Korean lost a crucial point by a close call at the baseline and eventually went on to drop the serve and also the match by a marathon 6-1, 4-6, 3-6. Agarwal will face Tavish Pahwa in the pre-quarter finals on Wednesday.
Lucky loser Felix Raser from Austria, ranked 498 in the world, did not have to sweat much before ousting India’s Yashwin Dahiya 6-2, 6-2. Raser will meet Jeffrey Wageh in the pre-quarters.
Local girl Aleena Farid staged a remarkable rally to win the first set against qualifier Tanvi Pandey. Farid was trailing by 1-5 when she made a stunning comeback to win 6 straight games to bag the set 7-5.
In the second set again, Pandey went up by a dominating 5-1 but this time Farid was not fortunate enough to turn it around in spite of winning 3 games to bring the set to a close 4-5. Here at 4-5, Farid could only manage to win one point before handing over the set to Pandey by 6-4. The score line in the deciding set was no different as Pandey took a big lead of 4-0 in about 25 minutes from where Farid tried to fight back but ultimately lost by a close 7-5, 4-6, 3-6.
Matches will start from 09:30 am Wednesday.
Results on Tuesday:

Boys Singles Under 18 – Round of 32 (Remaining)
Eyad Reda Ez Mohamed Sherif (EGY)(1) bt Kamil Stolarczyk (USA) 6-4, 6-3
Fedor Altukhov bt VIvaan Bidasaria 6-4, 6-1
Kensuke Kobayashi bt Shounak Chatterjee 6-2, 6-0
Mannan Ashok Agarwal bt Junseo Jang (KOR) 1-6, 6-4, 6-3
Gabriel Niedermayr (AUT) bt Tanussh Ghildyal 6-3, 6-2
Felix Raser (AUT) bt Yashwin Dahiya 6-2, 6-2
Yassin Ahmed Wageh (EGY)(4) bt Dev Vipul Patel 6-4, 6-2
Seifelden Mostafa Samih (EGY)(5) bt Praneel Sharma 6-4, 6-3
Koyu Yanagi (JPN) bt Om Patel 6-0, 7-5
Girls Singles Under 18 – Round of 32 (Remaining)
Tarita Hongsyok (THA) bt Tanusshri Maneni Sathesh 1-6, 6-2, 6-4
Anya Arora (USA) bt Shaivi Gaurav Dalal 6-0, 6-3
Aishwarya Jadhav (7) Sahej Lakhat (USA) 6-4, 6-4
Tanvi Pandey (USA) bt Aleena Farid 5-7, 6-4, 6-3
Natsuki Irokawa (JPN)(8) bt Diya Chaudhary 6-1, 6-0
Swanika Roy bt Deepthi Venkatesan 6-2, 6-3.
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