Prajnesh-Saketh duo progresses in Taipei

The Indian duo of Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Saketh Myneni beat the Taipei pair of Tung-Lin Wu and Cheng-Yu Yu 6-4, 7-5 to reach the quarterfinal of the Challenger in Chinese Taipei.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran (in picture) and Saketh Myneni entered the draw as the alternates in place of the top seeds. (File photo)

Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Saketh Myneni, who entered as the alternates in place of the top seeds, combined well to progress into the doubles quarterfinals of the $150,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Chinese Taipei on Wednesday.

Saketh and Prajnesh who had played each other in the first round of singles, beat the Taipei pair of Tung-Lin Wu and Cheng-Yu Yu 6-4, 7-5.

The third seeded Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan, however, were beaten in straight sets by Mathew Ebden and Andrew Whittington in the quarterfinals.

In the $25,000 ITF women’s event in Japan, Karman Kaur Thandi was beaten in straight sets by Makoto Ninomiya of Japan in the first round.

In the women’s event in Egypt, Rutuja Bhosale and Zeel Desai progressed, while four other Indian girls were beaten in the first round.

Third seeded Pranjala Yadlapalli was beaten by Varvara Flink of Russia in the pre-quarterfinals in Kazakhstan, but progressed into the doubles semifinals with Kyra Shroff.