Kolkata, 12 March 2026: An unseeded young lad from Manipur, Shanker Heisnam, fought hard before going down against the top-seeded Luca Castelnuovo of Switzerland at the ongoing Central Excise & CGST–ITF M25 Kolkata 2026, being held at the synthetic courts of the Bengal Tennis Association complex. Heisnam had a great opportunity to break the top seed at 3-3 in the opening set, but he failed to capitalise as he dropped a serve in the very next game, bringing the scoreline to 4-4. The world-ranked 399 played strongly to claim the set by a close 7-5, breaking Heisnam again at 5-6 on serve. In the second, the left-handed Luca proved to be too strong for the 19-year-old wildcard entrant, as the former won the set by an easy 6-2. The local lad, Ishaque Eqbal, failed to live up to the expectations of the audience, as he could not do much against the third seed from Australia, Philip Sekulic. Sukulic won by a straight 6-2, 6-1 in just 73 minutes. Siddharth Rawat, a member of the Davis Cup squad from Uttar Pradesh, made a stunning display of precision and control against 4th-seeded Dominik Palan of the Czech Republic, winning the pre-quarter-finals 6-2, 3-0 after the 4th seed conceded due to illness and discomfort. Wild card entrant Abhinan Sanjeev of Tamil Nadu, ranked at 22 in the country, continues his dream run as he drubs Rohan Mehra by a close 7-6(4), 7-5 to enter the quarter-finals. OOP_13032026 MDD MDS
