European Open: Divij Sharan moves into semifinals in doubles

Sharan and Scott Lipsky of the U.S. beat the third seeds Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Rajeev Ram of the U.S. 6-4, 4-6, 10-8 in he quarterfinals.

Divij Sharan (left, seen here with Purav Raja) will face Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Marcel Granollers of Spain in the semifinals.

Divij Sharan in partnership with Scott Lipsky of the U.S. beat the third seeds Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Rajeev Ram of the U.S. 6-4, 4-6, 10-8 in the doubles quarterfinals of the EUR 660,375 European Open in Belgium on Thursday.

In the semifinals, the Indo-American pair may meet second seeds Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Marcel Granollers of Spain. There was a lot of success for Indian players in doubles in the USD 125,000 Challenger in China, as Jeevan Neduncehzhiyan, seeded No.1 with Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia, and Sumit Nagal along with Riccardo Ghedin of Italy lined up for a semifinal against each other.

Karunuday Singh made the semifinals of the ITF men’s Futures in Pattaya, but the recently crowned national champion Dalwinder Singh and the runner-up Suraj Prabodh were beaten in the pre-quarterfinals for a similar event in Kuching, Malaysia.

In the ITF women’s event in Colombo, former Asian junior champion Pranjala Yadlapalli prevailed over Zeel Desai 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfianls, but the fine run of qualifier Jennifer Luikham was stopped by top seed Gozal Ainitdinova of Kazakhstan.

The results

EUR 660,375 European Open, Antwerp, Belgium

Doubles (quarterfinals): Scott Lipsky (U.S.) & Divij Sharan bt Raven Klaasen (RSA) & Rajeev Ram (U.S.) 6-4, 4-6, 10-8.

USD 125,000 Challenger men, Ningbo, China

Doubles (quarterfinals): Christopher Rungkat (Ina) & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Di Wu and Yibing Wu (Chn) 2-6, 6-2, 10-7; Riccardo Ghedin (Ita) & Sumit Nagal bt Hsien-Yin Peng & Tsung-Hua Yang (Tpe) 7-6(4), 7-6(8).

USD 15,000 ITF men, Kuching, Malaysia

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Martins Podzus (Lat) bt Dalwinder Singh 6-3, 6-4; Jurabek Karimov (Uzb) bt Suraj Prabodh 6-1, 6-1.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Ruben Gonzales (Phi) & Hunter Reese (U.S.) bt Kelsey Stevenson (Can) & Kaza Vinayak Sharma 7-6(1), 3-6, 10-7; Ahmed Deedar Abdul Razak 7 Syed Mohd Agil Naguib (Mas) bt Tyler Lu (U.S.) & Kunal Anand 7-6(2), 6-4.

USD 15,000 ITF men, Pattaya, Thailand

Singles (quarterfinals): Karunuday Singh bt Enrico Dalla Valle (Ita) 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-4.

USD 15,000 ITF women, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Singles (quarterfinals): Gozal Ainitdinova (Kaz) bt Jennifer Luikham 6-1, 6-4; Pranjala Yadlapalli bt Zeel Desai 6-4, 6-4.