ATP Bengaluru 2: 23-year-old Aditya Vishal Balsekar qualifies for main draw, breaks into Top 1000
It was an afternoon to savor for 23-year-old Aditya Vishal Balsekar at the S.M. Krishna Tennis Stadium in Bengaluru on May 11 (Monday) as he became the sole Indian to make it out of qualifiers at the Karnataka Open (ATP Bengaluru 2 Challenger).
The qualifiers kicked off on May 10 (Sunday) with 14 Indian players aiming to make it to the main draw, but, in the end, Balsekar turned out to be the last man standing as he overcame Kazakhstan's Grigoriy Lomakin in the final qualifying round to make it to the main draw of the Karnataka Open.
Balsekar, ranked 1080 in the world, put on a forehand clinic as he downed the 945th ranked Lomakin 6-3, 7-5 to earn a place in the main draw of the competition. On the day, Balsekar, who made it to the final qualifying round after a hard-fought three-set win over fellow countryman Mahesh Kumar VV on Sunday, made a quick start to the contest, securing an early break to inch ahead in the match. Lomakin managed to break back the 23-year-old but the Mumbai-born youngster broke once again at 4-3 to close out the first set 6-3.
Balsekar secured another early break in the second set, and looked to be running away with the contest, but a rejuvenated Lomakin stormed back following an injury timeout to get back on level terms. At 5-5, the second set looked like it was headed to a tiebreak, but Balsekar found an extra gear to break the Kazakhstan man before holding his nerve to close out the set and the match.
On the back of the win, Balsekar, a former top-ranked Maharashtra junior, secured a berth in the main draw of a Challenger tournament for only the fourth time in his career, with all four instances coming in 2026. The win has also now taken him to 973 in the live rankings, with the youngster breaking into the Top 1000 of the rankings for the first time ever.
Balsekar's win means there will be a total of 10 Indians competing in the main draw of the ATP Karnataka Open.
Kalyanpur, Aggarwal go down in final round of qualifying While it was all smiles for Balsekar, 28-year-old Parth Aggarwal and 26-year-old Adil Kalyanpur went down in the final round of the qualifiers earlier today.
While Karnataka’s Kalyanpur went down in a grueling three-setter against USA’s Christopher Papa (7-3, 3-6, 3-6), Aggarwal was firmly outclassed by highly-rated USA teenager Ronit Karki (6-2 6-1). Karki, an Indian-American Tennis player, made the final of the 2025 Wimbledon Junior Championships. With the win, Karki has also risen to a career-high 910 in the live rankings.
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