India’s Sasi Kumar Mukund advanced to the quarter-finals of the Asia-Oceania Australian Open wild card play-off in Zhuhai, China on Wednesday, beating compatriot Sidharth Rawat 6-3, 6-2.
Rawat, who had qualified for the main draw with a fighting 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 win over Arjun Kadhe, could not maintain the momentum against seventh seed Mukund. The Indian will play Yun-seong Chung for a place in the semi-final, after the Korean beat fourth seed Denis Istomin.
Ramkumar Ramanathan is the other Indian in the main draw. He is seeded third and drawn to play Ze Zhang of China on Thursday in singles. He is also playing doubles with Kadhe and the third-seeded Indian pair were given a bye in the first round.
At the ongoing $25K ITF event in Solapur, India No 1 and second seed Ankita Raina advanced to the second round with a comprehensive 6-3, 6-0 win over Valeriya Strakhova. The other Indians to reach the second round were Vaidehi Chaudhari who beat Steffi Carruthers 6-4, 6-2, JenniferLuikham who beat Anna Morgina 6-4, 6-1 and Riya Bhatia defeated Saumya Vig 6-3, 6-0.
The other Indians in action went down in their openers. Berfu Cengiz defeated Mahak Jain 6-3, 6-2, Daria Mishina beat Mihika Yadav 6-3, 7-5, third seed Yue Yuan beat Pranjala Yadlapalli 6-4, 6-4, fifth seed Naiktha Bains beat Ramya Natarajan 6-0, 6-4, Katie Boulter beat Rutuja Bhosale 6-4, 6-1 and fourth seed Ulrikke Eikeri defeated wild card Akanksha Dileep Nitture 6-0, 6-0.
At the $15K ITF event in Nonthaburi, Thailand, Rishab Agarwal benefitted when Noppadol Noikor retired while trailing 7-6(7), 2-1 and SD Prajwal Dev defeated Pol Wattanakul 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 to reach the second round. In the other first round matches, fifth seed Danylo Kalenichenko defeated Haadin Bava 6-0, 6-3 and Benjamin Pietri got the better of Adil Kalyanpur 6-3, 6-2.
