Jinan Open: Prajnesh Gunneswaran advances to quarterfinals

The Indian toils hard before prevailing over Chinese Taipei’s Tung-Lin Wu.

File Photo: Prajnesh Gunneswaran (in picture) will play Japan’s Go Soeda in the quarterfinals.

Top seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran set up a quarterfinal against the seventh seed Go Soeda of Japan, with a 6-4, 7-6 (3) victory over Tung-Lin Wu of Chinese Taipei in the USD 162,480 Challenger in Jinan, China, on Thursday.

In doubles, Divij Sharan seeded No. 1 in partnership with Matthew Ebden, set up a semifinal against fourth seeds Saketh Myneni and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan.

In the ITF men’s Futures in Thailand, Sidharth Rawat and Nitin Kumar Sinha reached the singles quarterfinals.

In the USD 60,000 ITF women’s event in China, Rutuja Bhosale was beaten by the top seed Nina Stojanovic of Serbia. But, Rutuja and Prarthana Thombare made the doubles semifinals with Erika Sema of Japan and Jessy Rompies of Indonesia respectively.

Nagal bows out

At the Aon Open Challenger in Genoa, Italy, India’s challenge ended in the first round in both singles and doubles. Sumit Nagal, playing his first event after US Open, suffered a 1-6, 5-7 defeat to local wildcard Giulio Zeppieri.

In the doubles, Purav Raja and his Australian partner lost 6-7 (2), 6-7 (3) to Fernando Romboli and Attila Balazs.

At the Cassis Open in France, 12th seed Ramkumar Ramanathan lost his singles second round contest 3-6, 2-6 to Germany’s Daniel Masur. However, he reached the doubles quarterfinal with Russian partner Evgeny Karlovskiy with a 6-4, 6-1 win over fourth seed Croatian pair of Ivan Sabanov and Matej Sabanov.

The results USD 162,480 Challenger, Jinan, China Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Tung-Lin Wu (Tpe) 6-4, 7-6 (3). Doubles (quarterfinals): Matthew Ebden (Aus) & Divij Sharan bt Pedja Krstin (Srb) & Aira Santillan (Aus) 6-1, 6-4; Saketh Myneni & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Hiroki oriya 9Jpn) & Goncalo Oliveira (Por) 7-5, 6-2. EUR 46,600 Challenger, Cassis, France Doubles (quarterfinals): Quentin Halys & Tristan Lamasine (Fra) bt Evgeny Karlovskiy (Rus) & Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-3, 6-2. USD 15,000 ITF men, Hua Hin, Thailand Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Sidharth Rawat bt Kelsey Stevenson (Can) 6-3, 7-5; Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Cheng-Yu Yu (Tpe) 3-6, 6-4, 5-2 (retired). USD 60,000 ITF women, Changsha, China Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Nina Stojanovic (Srb) bt Rutuja Bhosale 7-6 (2), 6-2. Doubles (quarterfinals): Jessy Rompies (Ina) & Prarthana Thombare bt Hanyu Guo (Chn) & Aldila Sutjiadi (Ina) 6-4, 6-3; Erika Sema (Jpn) & Rutuja Bhosale w.o. Fatima Al Nabhani (Oma) & Angelina Gabueva (Rus). USD 15,000 ITF women, Tabarka, Tunisia Doubles (quarterfinals): Nadia Echeverria Alam (Ven) & Anna Popescu (GBR) bt Coralie Garrigues (Fra) & Likhitha Kalava 6-3, 6-3.

(With inputs from PTI)