PRAJNESH GUNNESWARAN IN CHALLENGER SEMIFINAL; SAKETH MYNENI IN FUTURES FINA

Davis Cupper Prajnesh Gunneswaran outplayed eighth seed Kwon Soonwoo of Korea 6-2, 6-3 to make the semifinals of the $150,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Anning, China, on Friday.

In the semifinals, Prajnesh will play Kamil Majchrzak of Poland.

Qualifier Sasi Kumar Mukund, however, was beaten 6-2, 6-4 by third seed Jordan Thompson of Australia.
Mukund collected $4,380 and 30 ATP points, which included five points for qualification.

In the $25,000 ITF men’s event in Karshi, Saketh Myneni made the final with a hard-foght 6-7(3), 7-6(5), 6-3 victory over Jurabek Karimov of Uzbekistan. He, however, lost the doubles final in partnership with Vijay Sundar Prashanth.

Former Asian junior champion Snehadevi Reddy fought hard for three hours and 41 minutes to beat the fifth seed Bojana Marinkovic of Serbia 4-6, 7-6(7), 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the ITF women’s event in Cairo. Snehadevi missed three set points in the second set tie-break, but pulled through for a memorable win.

Rutuja Bhosale’s fine run in the women’s event in Uzbekistan came to an end as she was beaten in the semifinals by Anastasia Gasanova of Russia.

The results:
$150,000 Challenger men, Anning, China
Singles (quarterfinals): Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Kwon Soonwoo (Kor) 6-2, 6-3; Jordan Thompson (Aus) bt Sasi Kumar Mukund 6-2, 6-4.

$25,000 ITF men, Karshi, Uzbekistan
Singles (semifinals): Saketh Myneni bt Jurabek Karimov (Uzb) 6-7(3), 7-6(5), 6-3.

Doubles (final): Konstantin Kravchuk & Roman Safiullin (Rus) bt Saketh Myneni & Vijay Sundar Prashanth 3-6, 7-5, [10-7].

$25,000 ITF men, Abuja, Nigeria
Doubles (semifinals): Ronnie Schneider (US) & Arjun Kadhe bt Markus Eriksson (Swe) & Maximilian Neuchrist (Aut) 7-5, 7-6(10).

$15,000 ITF men, Cairo, Egypt
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Maxence Broville (Fra) bt Anirudh Chandrasekar 7-6(6), 6-2.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Alexander Igoshin & Alexander Zhurbin (Rus) bt Anirudh Chandrasekar & Manish Sureshkumar 6-2, 7-5.

$25,000 ITF women, Karshi, Uzbekistan
Singles (semifinals): Anastasia Gasanova (Rus) bt Rutuja Bhosale 7-5, 6-3.

$15,000 ITF women, Cairo, Egypt
Singles (quarterfinals): Snehadevi Reddy bt Bojana Marinkovic (Srb) 4-6, 7-6(7), 6-4.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Dominique Karregat (Ned) & Nuria Parrizas-Diaz (Esp) bt Irina Fetecau (Rou) & Riya Bhatia 2-6, 6-2, [10-5]; Melany Solange Krywoj (Arg) & Aleksandra Stankovic (Srb) bt Charlotte Roemer (Ecu) & Snehadevi Reddy 7-6(9), 4-6, [10-7].