The top Indian singles tennis players were in action this week across the ATP Challenger and International Tennis Federation circuit.
India No 1 Prajnesh Gunneswaran, who is back on court after almost a month, beat Max Purcell 6-3, 6-4 to reach the third round of the Ningbo Challenger in China. The top seed had a bye in the first round.
The Indian is also teaming up with Vishnu Vardhan to play doubles, where compatriot Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and partner Adil Shamasdin were beaten by Alex Bolt and Matt Reid 6-3, 6-1 in the first round.
Meanwhile, India No 1 in women’s singles Ankita Raina started her campaign at the $100K ITF event in Suzhou, China with a good 6-1, 6-1 win over eighth seed Valeria Savinykh.
However Ramkumar Ramanathan had a poor run, going down in his first match of both singles and doubles at the Ismaning Challenger in Germany.
The sixth seed in singles lost 6-3, 7-6(3) to Russia’s Teymuraz Gabashvili, who used to be a former Top 50 player, in the second round after a bye in the first. In the doubles, he and partner David Vega Hernandez, seeded first, went down 7-6(6), 7-5 to Tallon Griekspoor and Botic Van de Zandschulp,.
Purav Raja, the other Indian at the Ismaning Challenger, also lost in the first round of the doubles competition with partner Rameez Junaid. Scott Clayton and Evan Hoyt beat them 4-6, 7-6(4), [10-5].
On the ATP Tour, the all-Indian doubles pair of Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan were out in the first round of the Stockholm Open, losing 7-6(5), 6-4 against Dominic Inglot and Austin Krajicek.
Earlier in the week, India’s Rutuja Bhosale and Brazilian Laura Pigossi won the doubles title at the $25K ITF tournament in Lagos, Nigeria. They fought back from a set and a break down to beat India’s Prarthana Thombare and Sandra Samir 4-6 6-4 10-7. Pigossi had earlier beaten Bhosale in the singles quarter-final of the event.