India’s top-ranked singles player Prajnesh Gunneswaran edged closer to the final while India No 2 Ramkumar Ramanathan stumbled at the quarter-final stage at the ATP Challenger in Anning, China on Friday.
World No 80 Prajnesh, who is defending his first title this week, moved into the semi-finals with another straight sets win. The second-seeded Indian beat 10th seed Nikola Milojevic 7-5, 6-3 in the quarter-final. Fifth seed Ramkumar, on the other hand, fell to Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak 6-1, 7-6.
It would have been an all-Indian semi-final had he advanced, but now Prajnesh will take on the Polish third seed for a spot in the final. Prajnesh, 29, had won his first ATP challenger title on the clay courts of Anning last year, beating Egyptian Mohamed Safwat in the final. The title had kick-started a breakthrough year for him which saw him break into the Top 100.
Read yesterday’s Indian tennis wrap here
ITF Results
Sidharth Rawat and Manish Sureshkumar beat Sergey Fomin and Dostanbek Tashbulatov 6-4, 6-1 in the doubles quarter-finals at $25,000 ITF event in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.
Tom Jomby beat Kunal Anand 6-3, 6-4 at the $25,000 ITF event in Abuja, Nigeria.
Mathiieu Perchicot beat VM Ranjeet 6-0, 6-3 at the $15,000 ITF event in Cairo, Egypt
Doubles (quarterfinals): Ramu Ueda and Jennifer Luikham beat Ena Kajevic and Jantje Tilbuerger 4-6, 6-1, [10-5] in the doubles quarter-finals at the $15,000 ITF event in Antalya, Turkey.