India’s Prajnesh Gunneswaran knocked out third seed Thomas Fabbiano of Italy to seal his place in the semifinals of the Liuzhou Challenger in China on Friday.
The win enabled Prajnesh to exact sweet revenge over Fabbiano, who had defeated the Indian in the final of the Ningbo Challenger last week. He will face top seed Radu Albot in the semi-final on Saturday.
In an ITF $25K challenger event in Nanning, China, Karman Kaur Thandi progressed to the semifinal with a 6-3 7-6(4) win over world No 163 and former junior no. 2 Katie Swan, who happens to be the Indian’s doubles partner at the event.
Karman will play second seed Julia Glushko in the singles semifinal.
Prajnesh came from behind to beat the Italian 6-7(5) 6-1 6-3 in the battle of baseline, having lost to him the title clash, last week. Prajnesh struck the ball hard, retrieving almost everything thrown at him and found some delectable winners on both flanks.
Asked how he managed to beat Fabbiano this time around, Prajnesh said, the conditions suited him better.
“The courts were a bit slower and it suits my game more. I played well. It was not the best of first set. I had chances but did not play well when I was close to getting break of serves,” Prajnesh told PTI.
“In the second set I really played well. I got an early break and played well to finish the set. The third set was very close, could have gone either way. I saved a breakpoint at 3-3. I broke at 4-3 and served very well in the last game of the match,” he said.
Prajnesh finished the two-hour eight minute battle with an ace, serving at love.
In the doubles, fourth seeds N Sriram Balaji and Saketh Myneni lost in the semifinal 7-5 0-6 5-10 to second seeds Mao-Xin Gong and Ze Zhang.
UPDATES:
Leander Paes and his doubles partner Miguel Ángel Reyes-Varela defeated Italian duo of Daniele Bracciali and Simone Bolelli 7-5, 7-6 to reach the final of the Brest Challenger event. Jeevan Neduncheziyan and his American partner Austin Krajicek lost in the other semi-final.
(With PTI inputs)
