It was a good day for Indian tennis players on the ATP tour with Ramkumar Ramanathan reaching the quarter-finals of the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships after Saketh Myneni’s big win over top seed Mikhail Youzhny President’s Cup ATP Challenger tournament in Kazakhstan.
Veteran Leander Paes also made a winning return to the tour while Rutuja Bhosale came on top in the all-Indian clash at the ITF event in Thailand.
Men’s Results
Ramkumar fought back from a set down to upset American eighth seed Denis Kudla at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport. The Indian won 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in two hours to reach the quarters of the ATP 250 event where he will play Vasek Pospisil. It is only his third quarter-final on the ATP World Tour, after Chennai Open and Antalya Open last year, where he had beaten Dominic Thiem.
In the doubles, all four Indians involved won to reach the second round. Leander Paes, making a return to the ATP Tour, partnered with James Cerretani and notched a 6-4, 6-3 win over Luke Bambridge and Jonny O’Mara.
They will meet another Indian-American pair in the quarters as Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Austin Krajicek, coming off a title in their last tournament, also advanced with a stunning win over top seeds. They beat Nicholas Monroe and John-Patrick Smith 5-7, 6-1, 10-8 in a tough three-setter.
Purav Raja and Divij Sharan are also in the quarter-finals with their respective doubles partners.
Arjun Kadhe went down in the second round at the Challenger in Astana. He lost 3-6,7-6(4),4-6 to Aleksandr Nedovyesov. He had made it to the main draw as a lucky loser and reached the second round after a walkover win. However, he is still in the doubles fray with partner Denis Yevseyev and will play later on Thursday.
At the ATP 250 event in Bastad, Sweden, the all-Indian pair of N Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan went down in the first round after a close 7-5, 4-6, 8-10 loss to Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner.
At the F11 Futures event in China, second seed Aryan Goveas beat Hanyi Liu 7-5, 6-2 to reach the quarter-final.
Women’s results
Rutuja Bhosale notched a morale-boosting win as she shocked Ankita Raina, the highest-ranked women’s singles player in India 6-4, 6-3 to reach the quarter-final at the ITF $25K Nonthaburi event in Thailand. Raina had won a title in Thailand last week and was on a good run.
Bhosale will play sixth seed Hiroko Kuwata next. She continued her good run in the doubles as well with partner Pranjala Yadlapalli as they beat Chompoothip Jundakate and Chanikarn Silakul 6-1, 6-3.
At the ITF $15K tournamnet in Jakarta, Indonesia, three Indian women advanced to the quarters. Third seed Zeel Desai notched a 6-2, 6-0 win over Zhuoma Ni Ma. Eighth seed Mahak Jain (who beat Fitriana Sabrina 6-3, 3-6, 6-3) and Kanika Vaidya (who won the all-Indian clash with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Sai Samhitha Chamarthi), set up a match against each other.
Desai advanced in the doubles as well with a 6-3, 6-1 win with partner Mana Ayukawa.
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