Sakth Myneni, who needed a wildcard to enter the main draw of the KPIT-MSLTA Challenger in Pune, knocked out top seed Blaz Kavcic in the quarter-finals on Thursday.
The 30-year-old was the pick of the Indians as he waged an almost two-hour long battle with the Slovenian to emerge on top with a 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 win in the singles. Myneni also advanced to the semi-finals in the doubles with Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, beating Sumit Nagal and Naoki Nakagawa 6-0, 6-3 in the quarter-finals.
Yuki Bhambri and Ramanathan Ramkumar, the two top-ranked Indians in the singles draw, also advanced to the semi-finals with relatively easy, making it three Indians in the last four of the Pune Challenger.
Third seeded Bhambri stormed past unseeded Jay Clarke from Great Britain 6-4, 6-0 while Ramkumar, the fourth seed, beat Serbian fifth seed Nikola Milojevic 6-1, 7-5. The fourth semi-finalist was Spanish second seed Adrian Menendez-Maceiras whose quarter-final opponent, Aleksandr Nedovyesov from Kazakhstan, retired midway at 7-5, 4-1.
The first singles semi-final will be see an all-Indian clash between Myneni and Ramkumar while Bhambri will take on Menendez-Maceiras.
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