Yuki Bhambri crushes Saketh Myneni in Zhuhai

It was the second victory in the international circuit for the 23-year-old Yuki, who had beaten the 28-year-old Saketh in the PSPB inter-unit tournament last week in Delhi.

Yuki Bhambri defeated his countryman Saketh Nainani to reach the semi finals in Zhuhai.

Top seed Yuki Bhambri tamed fifth seed Saketh Myneni 6-4, 7-6(3) in the quarter finals of the $50,000 men’s Challenger tennis tournament in Zhuhai, China, on Friday.

It was the second victory in the international circuit for the 23-year-old Yuki, who had beaten the 28-year-old Saketh in the PSPB inter-unit tournament last week in Delhi.

The 111th ranked Yuki served better and converted one of six breakpoints that he forced, and saved all the three breakpoints that he faced, in clinching the close contest, in an hour and 20 minutes.

“It was tough, and he served pretty well”, said Yuki, about the engrossing encounter with his doubles partner for this tournament.

“I just tried to be aggressive and play solid in my service games. In the end, the difference was only a couple of points”, said Yuki, who will play Thomas Fabbiano of Italy in the semi finals.

The 156th ranked Saketh, who had made both the singles and doubles final of a similar tournament, the Delhi Open recently, collected $1460 and 17 ATP points. He served seven aces to four by Yuki, and managed to save a matchpoint at 2-6 in the second set tie-break.

Meanwhile, Purav Raja lost the doubles quarterfinals with Ruan Roelofse of South Africa to the third seeds Marcus Daniell and Artem

Sitak in the $75,000 Challenger in Mexico

Karunuday Singh who has made the singles quarterfinals, reached the doubles semi finals with Shuichi Sekiguchi of Japan, before bowing out to the top seeds Liang-Chi Huang of Chinese Taipei and Ben Mclachlan of New Zealand, in the $10,000 ITF Futures in Japan.

The results:

$50,000 Challenger men, Zhuhai, China

Singles (quarterfinals): Yuki Bhambri bt Saketh Myneni 6-4, 7-6(3).

$75,000 Challenger men, Puebla, Mexico

Doubles (quarterfinals): Marcus Daniell & Artem Sitak (Nzl) bt Ruan

Roelofse (RSA) & Purav Raja 4-6, 6-3, 10-8.

$10,000 ITF men, Nishi-Tama, Japan

Doubles (semi finals): Liang-Chi Huang (Tpe) & Ben Mclachlan (Nzl) bt Shuichi Sekiguchi (Jpn) & Karunuday Singh 6-2, 6-3; Quarterfinals: Shuichi Sekiguchi & Karunuday Singh bt Gengo Kikuchi & Shunrou Takeshima (Jpn) 2-6, 7-5, 10-5.