Ankita Raina loses second round in Japan; Balaji in doubles semifinals of Challenger

Fourth seed Ankita Raina was beaten 7-6(3), 6-4 by Momoki Kobori of Japan in the pre-quarterfinals of the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Kofu, Japan.

Ankita in partnership with Emily Webley-Smith of Britain also got beaten in the doubles quarterfinals, rather tamely at 6-2, 6-2, by the Taipei duo of Kai-Chen Chang and Ching-Wen Hsu.

Sriram Balaji made the doubles semifinals of the Challenger in China in partnership with Hans Hach Verdugo of Mexico. However, Vishnu Vardhan in partnershipwith Luca Margaroli of Switzerland was beaten 10-6 in the super tie-break by the top seeds Cheng-Peng Hsieh of Chinese Taipei and Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia.

In the ITF men’s Futures in Australia, Karunuday Singh reached the singles quarterfinals and the doubles semifinals with Aaron Addison of Australia.

In the men’s event in Manama, Vijay Sundar Prashanth made the doubles final in partnership with Alexander Igoshin of Russia. The top seeds will be challenged by theDutch duo of Jesper De Jong and Sidane Pontjodikromo in the final.

The results:

$54,160 Challenger, Zhangjiagang, China
Doubles (quarterfinals): Cheng-Peng Hsieh (TPE) & Christopher Rungkat (INA) bt Luca Margaroli (SUI) & Vishnu Vardhan 4-6, 6-1, 10-6; Hans Hack Verdugo (MEX) & Sriram Balaji bt Hua Runhao & Zhang Zhizhen (CHN) 3-6, 7-6(4), 10-5.

$25,000 ITF women, Kofu, Japan
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Momoko Kobori (JPN) bt Ankita Raina 7-6(3), 6-4.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Kai-Chen Chang & Ching-Wen Hsu (TPE) bt Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) 6-2, 6-2.

$15,000 ITF men, Mornington, Australia
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Karunuday Singh bt Lucas Vuradin (AUS) 2-6, 7-6(3), 6-3; 
Doubles (quarterfinals): Aaron Addison (AUS) & Karunuday Singh bt Kazuma Kawachi & Naoki Takeda (JPN) 6-1, 3-6, 10-8.

$15,000 ITF men, Manama, Bahrain
Doubles (semifinals): Alexander Igoshin (RUS) & Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Mats Rosenkranz & Niklas Schell (GER) 6-4, 7-6(7).

$15,000 ITF men, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
Doubles (quarterfinals): SD Prajwal Dev & Adil Kalyanpur bt Kai Lemstra (GER) & Stefan Palosi (ROU) 4-6, 6-4, 10-6; Giovani Samaha (LBN) & Aryan Goveas bt Pavel Shumeiko (UKR) & Davide Tortora (ITA) 6-1, 6-2.

$15,000 ITF women, Xiamen, China
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Shanshan Guo & Mei Xu Wu (CHN) bt Michiru Furuya (J) & Ashmitha Easwaramurthi 6-2, 6-0.