Leander Paes and Purav Raja exit early

Paes and Raja were beaten 6-3, 6-2 by Jack Sock and Jackson Withrow of the US in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the $622,675 ATP tennis tournament in the US.

Purav had taken a break to be home after the first Grand Slam and has joined Paes in the US circuit.

Leander Paes and Purav Raja were beaten 6-3, 6-2 by Jack Sock and Jackson Withrow of the US in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the $622,675 ATP tennis tournament in the US.

After making the third round of the Australian Open, and reaching the finals of two back to back Challengers, winning a title in the process, it was the second set back for the 44-year-old Paes following the early exit last week in New York.

Purav had taken a break to be home after the first Grand Slam and has joined Paes in the US circuit.

In the $50,000 Challenger in Japan, Sriram Balaji and Prajnesh Gunneswaran made the doubles semifinals. Prajnesh will be playing his singles pre-quarterfinals on Thursday.

In the $25,000 ITF women’s tournament in Australia, Karman Kaur Thandi sailed into the pre-quarterfinals past lucky-loser Jia-Qi Kang of China. In the doubles quarterfinals, Karman in partnership with Jacqueline Adina Cristian of Romania beat the top seeds Tereza Mrdeza of Croatia and Prarthana Thombare 6-4, 6-1.

Interestingly, Karman will challenge the sixth-seeded Tereza in the singles pre-quarterfinals.

In the ITF women’s event in Egypt, fifth seed Pranjala Yadlapalli managed to eke out five games from the Czech qualifier, Karolina Berankova in the first round.