India’s top-ranked tennis player Yuki Bhambri moved through to the quarter-final of the ATP Surbiton Challenger tournament on Wednesday, defeating Australia’s Alex Bolt in a three-setter.
Bhambri, seeded third at the tournament, was stretched by the unseeded Australian ranked 112th in the world (29 places below the Indian). Bhambri won the first 6-3 before Bolt reversed the scoreline in the second but the Indian breezed through the decider to take it 6-1.
In the previous round, Bhambri recorded an impressive straight-sets win on the grass-court event against talented Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Ramkumar Ramanthan, the other Indian in men’s singles fray at the tournament, will face Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky in the round of 16 on Thursday after having stunned the second Jordan Thompson earlier.
In the men’s doubles section, N Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan lost in the quarter-finals against the Skupski brothers, Neal and Ken, in straight sets while Ramkumar, partnering Juergen Meltzer also lost at the same stage, defeated 6-4, 6-7 (3), 2-10 by Nicholas Monroe and John-Patrick Smith.
Bhambri will face sixth seed Alex De Minaur in the last eight on Friday.
Earlier in the tournament, Ankita Raina lost in the opening round of both women’s singles and doubles.
Karman progressess in Thailand
India’s Karman Kaur Thandi progressed to the quarterfinal at Thailand ITF $25,000 event with a 7-6(4) 6-4 over Bulgaria’s Aleksandrina Naydenova. Karman, seeded fourth in the event, had started the tournament on fire, with a 6-0 6-0 win over Thailand’s Lunda Kumhom.
While Karman progressed, her compatriot Pranjala Yadlapalli went down fighting to the sixth seed Jacqueline Cako from USA in three sets, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Pranjala’s doubles campaign also came to an end, as she and her partner Tamachan Momkoonthod from Thailand lost to the all-Thai pair of Nicha Lertpitaksinchai and Nudnida Luangnam 4-6 7-6(5) [12-10] in the quarterfinals.
