Paes and Raja go down fighting in St Petersburg, Mukund and Kadhe set up final in Coimbatore

Indian tennis players playing in the International Tennis Federation pro circuit tournaments got positive results on Friday. On the other hand, Indian contending in tournaments in the Association of Tennis Professionals tournaments suffered casualties.

The following is the day’s recap of results:

ATP St Petersburg Open

Leander Paes and Purav Raja suffered a tough defeat in the semi-final at the St. Petersburg Open on Friday against the top-seeded Chilean-Argentinian team of Julio Peralta and Horacio Zeballos.

The unseeded Indian team won the opening set 6-4, but Peralta and Zeballos levelled the match by taking the second set 6-3. The match tie-break was close but the Latin American team eventually edged out the Indians 10-7 to reach the final after 82 minutes of play. In the final, Peralta and Zeballos will take on the second-seeded American-Australian team of Nicholas Monroe and John-Patrick Smith.

ITF Circuit

An all-Indian finale in the $15,000 ITF tournament in Coimbatore will be contested on Saturday, with the top-seed Sasi Kumar Mukund taking on qualifier Arjun Kadhe.

Earlier, Mukund defeated compatriot and seventh seed Aryan Goveas in straight sets 6-3, 6-4. Kadhe defeated the last remaining non-Indian player in the men’s singles draw, Cing-Yang Meng of Taiwan in his semi-final. Over-turning the first set deficit, Kadhe posted a 6-7(9), 6-1, 6-0 win in an hour and 45 minutes to reach the last round.

In the men’s doubles, the siblings’ pair of Lakshit Sood and Chandril Sood picked up the title with a win over Mukund and Kadhe. The Sood brothers, who were the top-seeds in the doubles draw, won in straight sets 6-4, 6-2. This is their fifth doubles title in ITF Futures for the 2017 season.

Among the women, the second-seeded Indo-Montenegrin team of Karman Kaur Thandi and Ana Veselinovic were upset in the semi-finals of the $25,000 ITF event in Lubbock, United States.

Thandi and Veselinovic were defeated by the Czech-American qualifiers Alisa Kleybanova and Victoria Duval 2-6, 6-4, 10-8.

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