Prajnesh Gunneswaran’s strong run at the Liuzhou Challenger came to an end with a straight-set defeat against top seed Radu Albot in the semi-finals of the $50,000 tournament in China on Saturday.
World no 146 Prajnesh, who was the runner-up at Ningbo event last week, lost 3-6, 3-6 to world number 89 from Moldova. However, his good show earned him 29 ranking points and will help him jump to a new career-best rank on Monday.
Karman Kaur Thandi, meanwhile, stormed into the final s of the ITF $25K challenger event in Nanning, China. The world 215 beat second seed Julia Glushko 6-3,6-3 in the semis.
The unseeded Indian will take on fourth seed Han Xinyun in the finals on Sunday, before leaving for the Mumbai Open where she has received a wild card in the main draw. But the 20-year-old will have a challenge on hand as she has been drawn to meet top seed and world No 47 Zheng Saisai of China in the first round.
On the doubles circuit, Divij Sharan and partner Artem Sitak notched a thrilling win to reach the semi-finals of the ATP 500 Swiss Indoors event in Basel. The duo beat Marc-Andrea Huesler and Sem Verbeek 1-6, 7-6(8), 10-5 to set a semis clash with brothers Alexander and Mischa Zverev.
Indian players were also in action in the qualifying rounds of the WTA $125K Mumbai Open on Saturday, read the report here.