Leander in doubles semifinals of Tashkent Challenger

Leander and his German partner, Andre Begemann, won a thriller, 10-8, in the super tie-break against Denys Molchanov of Ukraine and Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan.

A file picture of Leander Paes.

Leander Paes, in partnership with Andre Begemann of Germany, made the doubles semifinals of the $125,000 men’s Challenger tennis tournament in Uzbekistan on Wednesday.

The Indo-German combination won a thriller, 10-8, in the super tie-break against Denys Molchanov of Ukraine and Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan.

Meanwhile, in the $50,000 Challenger in Vietnam, defending champion Saketh Myneni had to retire after the first set of the pre-quarterfinals against Taro Daniel of Japan, as his shoulder injury flared up. Saketh and Sanam Singh were seeded third, but withdrew, allowing a lucky loser pair to take the draw.

Sanam, however, made the singles pre-quarterfinals with a straight-sets victory over Yuya Kibiof Japan. Ramkumar Ramanathan lost the singles first round, but made the doubles quarterfinals after a slow start with Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan.

On his return to the professional circuit from a painful tennis elbow, Yuki Bhambri tasted first success in three weeks, as he outplayed Andrew Carter of the U.S. for the loss of three games in the first round of the ITF men’s Futures in the U.S. Yuki was stepping down to play a $25,000 event after having tried two Challenger events over the fortnight when he played three-setters but failed to register a victory.

In the $25,000 ITF women’s event in Nigeria, Prarthana Thombare and Dhruthi Venugopal ran into the top two seeds in the singles pre-quarterfinals and bowed out.

In another women’s event in Indonesia, third seed Rishika Sunkara went down in three sets to wild card Lavinia Tananta in the pre-quarterfinals.

The results:

$125,000 Challenger men, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Doubles (quarterfinals): Andre Begemann (Ger) & Leander Paes bt Denys Molchanov (Ukr) & Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Kaz) 4-6, 6-4, 10-8.

$50,000 Challenger men, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Taro Daniel (Jpn) bt Saketh Myneni 6-1 (retired); Go Soeda (Jpn) bt Prajnesh Gunneswaran 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

First round: Sanam Singh bt Yuya Kibi (Jpn) 6-4, 6-4; Peter Gojowczyk (Ger) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-4, 7-6(1).

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Christopher Rungkat (Ina) & Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Cong Tien Le & Dac Thien Nguyen (Vie) 6-0, 6-2; Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan & Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Tatsuma Ito (Jpn) & Sriram Balaji 0-6, 6-3, 10-4.

$25,000 ITF men, Austin, U.S.

Singles (first round): Yuki Bhambri bt Andrew Carter (U.S.) 6-3, 6-0.

$25,000 ITF women, Lagos, Nigeria

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Valentini Grammatikopoulou (Gre) bt Prarthana Thombare 6-2, 6-2; Tadeja Majeric (Slo) bt Dhruthi Venugopal 6-3, 6-1.

$10,000 ITF women, Jakarta, Indonesia

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Lavinia Tananta (Ina) bt Rishika Sunkara 6-2, 1-6, 6-0; Haruka Kaji (Jpn) bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi 6-2, 6-0.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Emily Appleton (GBR) & Rishika Sunkara bt Vita Mediana (Ina) & Ashmitha Easwaramurthi 4-0 (retired).