Pranjala into quarters of Australian Open wild card playoff

Arjun Kadhe will play seventh seed Renta Tokuda of Japan in the men’s singles on Thursday.

Pranjala will take on Chihiro Muramatsu in the quarterfinals, who defeated the Chinese third seed Fang Ying.

Seventh seed Pranjala Yadlapalli had to be at her fighting best to get past qualifier Mana Ayukawa of Japan 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(3) in the women’s first round of the Australian Open wild card play-off tennis event in Zhuhai, China, on Wednesday.

In the quarterfinals, Pranjala will play another Japanese, Chihiro Muramatsu, who knocked out the Chinese third seed Fang Ying Xun 6-3, 6-3.

In the men’s event, second seed Ze Zhang of China proved strong in beating Sidharth Rawat 6-4, 6-2 in the first round.

Arjun Kadhe, the only other Indian in the men’s singles, will play seventh seed Renta Tokuda of Japan on Thursday.