PUNE, Feb 20: Indian pair of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Vijay Sundar Prashanth made it to the doubles semifinals, while Uzbekistan’s Khumoyun Sultanov bounced back to beat Bernard Tomic to reach quarterfinals of Maha Open ATP Challenger 100 Men’s Tennis Championship, here on Thursday.
Jeevan and Prashanth defeated another Indian pairing of Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-3, 3-6, 12-10 and will face India’s Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha and Zimbabwe’s Courtney John Lock in the semifinal.
Poonacha and Lock upset the fourth-seeded Australian pair of Blake Ellis and Tristan Schoolkate 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 10-8 in their quarterfinal clash.
Sultanov came from behind to stop the run of the Australian and former world No 17 Bernard Tomic to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 to make it to the men’s singles last-eight.
“It feels very nice to play here and I like the conditions, I played solidly knowing that Tomic is a tricky player and very experienced, so I didn’t want to give him a chance,” he said after the win.
Top-seeded Billy Harris of Great Britain recorded a 7-5, 6-3 win over qualifier Hiroki Moriya in one hour 38 minutes, while the fifth-seeded Ugo Blanchet stopped the winning run of Kyrian Jacquet winning 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 in an all-French battle.
Jacquet, who won two Challengers events on the trot in Chennai and Delhi, went down in the contest that lasted an hour 48 minutes.
Sixth-seeded Brandon Holt of the USA was made to work hard for a 6-4,6-4 win by Sascha Gueymard Wayenburg from France. (PTI)
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