Divij Sharan and Purav Raja have it easy in France

India's Divij Sharan and Purav Raja won a tricky match on their second match point 6-7(4), 6-3, 11-9 against Jonathan Eysseric of France and Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the €43,000 Challenger tennis tournament in France

Purav Raja and Divij Sharan had a wonderful start to the year, reaching the Chennai Open final in early January.

Chennai Open finalists and top seeds Divij Sharan and Purav Raja won a tricky match on their second match point 6-7(4), 6-3, 11-9 against Jonathan Eysseric of France and Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the €43,000 Challenger tennis tournament in France on Wednesday.

However, Vijay Sundar Prashanth lost both his singles and doubles second round in the $25,000 event in Kazakhstan.

Natasha Palha made the pre-quarterfinals of the $15,000 women’s event in Egypt, while NIdhi Chilumula and Rishika Sunkara lost in

contrasting styles. Nidhi was beaten in three sets by an opponent who converted all of eight break points in the match.

The results: €43,000 Challenger men, Quimper, France: Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Purav Raja & Divij Sharan bt Jonathan Eysseric (Fra) & Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukr) 6-7(4), 6-3, 11-9.

$25,000 ITF men, Aktobe, Kazakhstan: (pre-quarterfinals): Andriej Kapas (Pol) bt Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-4, 6-2. Doubles (quarterfinals): Mikhail Fufygin & Maxim Ratniuk (Rus) bt Denis Matsukevitch (Rus) & Vijay Sundar Prashanth 7-5, 6-1.

$15,000 ITF women, Cairo, Egypt (first round): Dana Kremer (Ger) bt Nidhi Chilumula 6-1, 4-6, 7-5; Natasha Palha bt Farah Khalil (Egy) 6-2, 6-0; Lisa-Marie Maetschke (Ger) bt Rishika Sunkara 6-1, 6-2.