Indian tennis roundup: Bhambri-Sharan progress at French Open, Pranjala claims big upset in Thailand

Yuki Bhambri and Divij Sharan progressed to the second round of men’s doubles after a hard-fought win over India’s Purav Raja and France’s Fabrice Martin at the French Open on Wednesday.

The all-Indian pair needed 2 hours and 21 minutes to get past the Indo-French combination, winning the match 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

In a match that saw only three breaks of serve, one in each set, Bhambri and Sharan prevailed, despite the high quality of serving by their opponents.

Away from all the Grand Slam action at French Open, it was a mixed day for Indian players.

Pranjala Yadlapalli followed up her good win on Tuesday with a big upset on Wednesday stunning fifth seed Jacqueline Cako from America at the ITF $25K tournament in Thailand. The 19-year-old fought back from a set down to win 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 and reach the quarter-finals.

She is the only Indian remaining in the singles draw after Karman Kaur Thandi lost a marathon battle. The Indian second seed went down to Maddison Inglis 6(5)-7, 7-6(5), 6(4)-7 in a match that lasted four hours and 24 minutes.

However, Thandi, with partner Jia-Qi Kang, advanced in the doubles after a 7-5, 6-3 win over Jacqueline Cabaj Awad and Nudnida Luangnam. She is the only Indian in the doubles draw.

At the Uzbekistan F3 Futures, fourth seed Arjun Kadhe went down in the second round to Russia’s Kristian Lozan 6-1, 7-5 in the singles. However, he advanced to the semi-finals in doubles with partner Alex Lawson as the second seeds beat Ivan Liutarevich and Dzmitry Zhyrmont 6-1, 6-2.

At Singapore F3 Futures, Aryan Goveas and Karunuday Singh, the only Indians in fray, bowed out after losing to Australia’s Jeremy Beale and James Frawley 6-2 6-1.

At the ITF Zimbabwe F1 Futures, Anirudh Chandrasekar exited the singles after a 6-4, 6-2 loss to Swiss sixth seed Aaron Schmid. However, Anirudh and his partner Vignesh Peranamallur were still in the fray in doubles. The Indian duo notched a 7-5, 7-6(4) with over Schmid and his partner Emmett Ward to extract some measure of revenge. The second seeds have reached the semi-finals.