Jeevan loses doubles final in Australian Open wild card play-off

The pair of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Christopher Rungkat were defeated 7-6(6), 6-3 by the top seeded duo of Sanchai Ratiwatana and Sonchat Ratiwatana in the Australian Open Asia-Pacific wildcard play-off event at Zhuhai, China.

Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Christopher Rungkat had beaten the third seeds, Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan, in the semifinals. (File Photo)

Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia were beaten in the doubles final 7-6(6), 6-3 by the top seeds Sanchai Ratiwatana and Sonchat Ratiwatana of Thailand in the Australian Open Asia-Pacific wildcard play-off tennis event in Zhuhai, China. Jeevan, who had played the Wimbledon main draw this season with Jared Donaldson, and his partner had beaten the third seeds, Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan, in the semifinals. Vishnu won a round in singles but had to give a walkover in the quarterfinals to top seed Soon Woo Kwon of Korea, who eventually won the Australian Open wild card, dropping four games in all in the next two rounds against Hiroki Moriya of Japan and Zhe Li of China. Sumit Nagal, who won the $100,000 Challenger in Bengaluru recently , was beaten 7-5, 6-4 by qualifier Jurabek Karimov of Uzbekistan in the first round in a draw of 16.

The results:Singles (quarterfinals) : Soon Wo Kwon (Kor) w.o. Vishnu Vardhan; Pre-quarterfinals : Vishnu Vardhan bt Tsung-Hua Yang (Tpe) 6-4, 5-7, 6-4; Hiroki Moriya (Jpn) bt Sriram Balaji 7-5, 6-0; Jurabek Karimov (Uzb) bt sumit Nagal 7-5, 6-4. Doubles (final) : Sanchai Ratiwatana & Sonchat Ratiwatana (Tha) bt Christopher Rungkat (Ina) & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 7-6(6), 6-3; Semifinals : Christopher Rungkat & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Sriram Balaji & Vishnu Vardhan 6-2, 6-3; Quarterfinals : Sriram Balaji & Vishnu Vardhan bt Ye Du & Oun Gao (Chn) 6-4, 6-2 Christopher Rungkat & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Hiroki Moriya & Yusuke Takahashi (Jpn) 3-6, 6-3, 10-5.