Indian tennis round-up: Bopanna out of Madrid Masters, Raina and Thandi make progress in China

After a good start to the week by Indian tennis players playing on the Challenger and Futures circuit this week, some are still in fray, others were not as lucky. Here’s a look at the latest results:

Women’s

India’s top two women singles players, Ankita Raina and Karman Kaur Thandi, advanced in both singles and doubles at the $60,000 ITF event in Luan, China.

Third seed Raina beat Hanyu Guo 6-4, 7-5 to reach the quarter-finals where she will take on sixth seed Xun Fangying. In the doubles, she and partner Harriet Dart, seeded third, notched a superb fightback win over Beatrice Gumuluya and Jessy Rompies 7-5, 2-6, 10-8 to reach the semi-finals.

Thandi, seeded fifth, scored a strong win in a tough three-setter to beat Yuxuan Zhang 6-4, 5-7, 6-1. She will face fourth seed Dart in the quarters. Thandi had a tough match in the doubles as well, but she prevailed along with Hanyu Guo to beat Mai Minokoshi and Erika Sema 2-6, 6-3, 11-9.

Pranjala Yadlapalli continued her good run at the $25,000 ITF event in Monzon, Spain as she advanced to the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Anastasia Kulikova.

At $15,000 ITF event in Hua Hin, Thailand, the Indian challenge in doubles also came to an end as Natasha Palha and Kwan Yau Ng lost to Yuqi Sheng and Aldila Sutjiadi 6-3, 6-1 while Ramya Natarajan and Ho Ching Wu went down to Chompoothip Jundakate and Tamachan Momkoonthod 4-6, 6-2, [10-7].

Men’s

Sasi Kumar Mukund’s superb run at the ATP Karshi Challenger in Uzbekistan came to an end as he went down to Cem Ilkel 6-3, 2-6, 3-6 in the quarter-final. In the doubles, N Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan lost 6-4, 7-6 to Altug Celikbilek and Ilkel.

At the Madrid Masters, eight seeds Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin were knocked out by Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus after a 6-4, 6-7, 5-10 loss.

At the Challenger tournament in Privence France, top seeds Purav Raja and Fabrice Martin were stunned by Joe Salisbury and Jonathan Eysseric, who won 7-6(4), 7-5.

At the Egypt F17 Futures, Tarun Anirudh Chilakalapudi and Vignesh Peranamallur beat fourth seeds Alexander Igoshin and Robert Ziganshin 6-1, 6-2.

At the Uganda F2 Futures, both Indians lost in the fray lost their respective singles matches. Kunal Anand lost to Russian top seed Ivan Nedelko 4-3, 4-3 and Darko Bojanovic beat Jayesh Pungliya lost to 6-4, 6-7(4), 7-5.

At the Vietnam F2 Futures, Kazuki Nishiwaki beat Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-4, 6-1.