Ivashka to face Biryukov in SM Krishna Memorial Open final

Seasoned Ilya Ivashka of Belarus remained composed under pressure to overcome Britain's third seed Hamish Stewart to enter the men's singles final of the SM Krishna Memorial Open here on Friday.

Ivashka won 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in a gripping semifinal to set up a summit clash with fourth seed Petr Biryukov, who outlasted second seed Alastair Gray 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5) in the other last four match.

Meanwhile, Indian interest remained alive in the doubles as Adil Kalyanpur and Mukund Sasikumar continued their impressive run, defeating second seeds Charles Barry of Ireland and Joshua Charlton of Australia 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the final.

The other Indian pair of Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha and Saketh Myneni, who had won the Karnataka Open doubles title last week, went down tamely to Biryukov and Grigoriy Lomakin of Kazakhstan 3-6, 4-6.

Ivashka, a former top-50 player in the ATP rankings, struck first against Stewart by breaking serve in the second game of the opening set.

The Belarusian protected the advantage with assured serving and clean hitting to pocket the set 6-3.

Stewart responded impressively in the second. She found greater depth on his returns and secured breaks in the second and eighth games, while Ivashka managed only one break back in the seventh. Stewart levelled the match 6-3 and appeared to have seized momentum.

But the decisive set belonged entirely to Ivashka. Showing composure in longer rallies, he forced errors from Stewart and earned crucial breaks in the sixth and eighth games to close out the contest 6-2 after two hours and five minutes.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)