Niki Poonacha-Courtney Lock advance to second round in doubles

India’s Niki Poonacha and Zimbabwe’s Courtney John Lock moved into the second round of doubles at the Delhi Open 2025 tennis tournament with a hard-fought victory at the DLTA Complex on Wednesday.

Poonacha-Lock had to dig deep to beat Czechia’s Marek Gengel and Dalibor Svrcina 2-6, 7(7)-6(5), 10-6 via tie-breaker in their opening round match of the ATP Challenger 75 tennis tournament.

The second seeds had to endure a tough opening set but fought back to draw level before sealing the win in a decisive match tie-breaker.

Following the withdrawal of top seeds Blake Ellis and Tristan Schoolkate, Poonacha and Lock are now the highest-ranked pair remaining in the doubles draw of the Delhi Open 2025.

Ellis and Schoolkate’s replacements, India’s Parth Aggarwal and Sidharth Rawat, lost in their opener to Enzo Couacaud and Kelsey Stevenson.

In the singles event, Indian tennis player Mukund Sasikumar's run came to an end following a 6-4, 6-3 loss to Belgium’s Michael Geerts in the Round of 16.

Meanwhile, third seed Tristan Schoolkate of Australia endured a gruelling three-hour battle against Monaco’s Valentin Vacherot before eventually winning the contest 7-6, 3-6, 6-4.

Qualifier Andre Ilagan's impressive run in the tournament continued as the American tennis player stunned eighth seed Timofey Skatov 6-2, 6-3 to progress. Furthermore, France’s Kyrian Jacquet blanked Jay Clarke of the United Kingdom in a straightforward 7-5, 6-3 win.

In other doubles results, third seeds Clarke and Johannes Ingildsen eased past Siddarth Banthia and Parikshit Somani in straight sets while Shintaro Mochizuki and Kaito Uesugi overcame Ramkumar Ramanathan and Karan Singh in a thrilling contest which ended 3-6, 6-1, 10-7.

Geerts also partnered up with compatriot and former Delhi Open semi-finalist Kimmer Coppejans in doubles to beat Denmark’s August Holmgren and Elmer Moller.

Kris Van Wyk and Eric Vanshelboim rounded out the day’s action with a 6-4, 6-3 win over wild cards SD Prajwal Dev and Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta.

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