Jinan Challenger: Saketh, Sriram exit early

Davis Cuppers Saketh Myneni and Sriram Balaji crashed out of the singles event in the first round of the $150,000 Challenger tennis tournament in China on Tuesday.

Saketh, who had a good tournament in the Astana Challenger on his return from injury, ran into the second seed Evgeny Donskoy and managed to win just four games.

Sriram Balaji ran into the third seed, the evergreen Go Soeda of Japan, and managed to collect five games.

In doubles, however, Balaji, in partnership with Vishnu Vardhan, outplayed Saketh Myneni and Vijay Sundar Prashanth.

Sumit Nagal won his first round in Germany and Karunuday Singh did so in Thailand in Men’s Futures.

Ankita Raina made it to the doubles quarterfinals in the $25,000 ITF women’s event in Belgium, in partnership with Bibiane Schoofs of the Netherlands.

Dhruthi Venugopal sailed into the second round in Thailand, while Jennifer Luikham made the doubles quarterfinals in Romania.

The results:

$150,000 Challenger men, Jinan, China

Singles (first round): Alexander Kudryavtsev (Rus) bt Sasi Kumar Mukund 6-3, 6-2; Go Soeda (Jpn) bt Sriram Balaji 6-2, 6-2; Evgeny Donskoy (Rus) bt Saketh Myneni 6-2, 6-2.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Sriram Balaji & Vishnu Vardhan bt Saketh Myneni & Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-2, 6-2.

$15,000 ITF men, Wetzlar, Germany

Singles (first round): Juan Ignacio Galarza (Arg) bt Tejas Chaukulkar 6-4, 6-2; Sumit Nagal bt Eduardo Dischinger (Bra) 6-3, 6-4.

$15,000 ITF men, Nonthaburi, Thailand

Singles (first round): Karunuday Singh bt Yuanfeng Li (Chn) 3-6, 6-2, 6-4; Francis Casey Alcantara (Phi) bt Rishab Agarwal 6-1, 2-0 (retired).

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Pruchya Isaro (Tha) & Karunuday Singh bt Justin Barki (Ina) & Kittiphong Wachiramanowong (Tha) 6-2, 6-3.

$25,000 ITF women, Koksijde, Belgium

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Bibiane Schoofs (Ned) & Ankita Raiina bt Lulna Meers & Chelsea Vanhoutte (Bel) 6-4, 6-3.

$15,000 ITF women, Arad, Romania

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Selma Stefania Cadar (Rou) & Jennifer Luikham bt Yarden Akler (Isr) & Alexandra Alina Tincu (Rou) 6-3, 6-2.

$15,000 ITF women, Nonthaburi, Thailand

Singles (first round): Dhruthi Venugopal bt Kajsa Rinaldo Persson (Swe) 6-2, 6-1.