Prajnesh fails to Go past Soeda

Top seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran was beaten 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-3 by Go Soeda of Japan in the quarterfinals of the $162,480 Challenger tennis tournament in Jinan, China, on Friday.

It was the second victory in three meetings for the Japanese against the 88th ranked Prajnesh, who had beaten him in the quarterfinals of the Bangkok Challenger earlier this season.

Prajnesh won 102 points in the match to 100 by his opponent. Both the players broke serve thrice, but the Japanese did at the crunch to turn the tide in his favour.
Prajnesh collected 25 ATP points and $4,380.

In the doubles semifinals, Divij Sharan, seeded No.1 with Matthew Ebden of Australia, beat Saketh Myneni and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan in straight sets.

The top seeds will play the Koreans Nam Ji Sung and Song Min-Kyu in the final.

In the ITF men’s Futures in Thailand, fourth seed Sidharth Rawat set up a semifinal against top seed Dayne Kelly of Australia, with a 7-6(1), 6-1 victory over George Loffhagen of Britain. Former Asian junior champion, Nitin Kumar Sinha, however, failed to capitalise on a good start and lost in three sets to sixth seed Makoto Ochi of Japan.

In the $60,000 ITF women’s event in China, Rutuja Bhosale made the doubles final with Erika Sema of Japan. The second seeds will play the top seeds Xinyu Jiang and Qianhui Tang of China in the final.

The results:

$162,480 Challenger, Jinan, China
Singles (quarterfinals): Go Soeda (JPN) bt Prajnesh Gunneswaran 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-3.

Doubles (semifinals): Matthew Ebden (AUS) & Divij Sharan bt Saketh Myneni & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 6-4, 6-2.

$15,000 ITF men, Hua Hin, Thailand
Singles (quarterfinals): Sidharth Rawat bt George Loffhagen (GBR) 7-6(1), 6-1; Makoto Ochi (JPN) bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 4-6, 6-1, 7-5.

$60,000 ITF women, Changsha, China
Doubles (semifinals): Xinyu Jiang & Qianhui Tang (CHN) bt Jessy Rompies (INA) & Prarthana Thombare 7-5, 6-4; Erika Sema (JPN) & Rutuja Bhosale bt Jia-Qi Kang (CHN) & Peangtarn Plipuech (THA) 7-6(4), 6-2.

$15,000 ITF women, Tabarka, Tunisia
Doubles (quarterfinals): Nadia Echeverria Alam (VEN) & Anna Popescu (GBR) bt Coralie Garrigues (FRA) & Likhitha Kalava 6-3, 6-3.

(Courtesy: The Hindu)