Purav raja wins challenger doubles title in istanbul with rameez junaid

Purav Raja in partnership with Rameez Junaid of Australia won the doubles title in the $75,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Istanbul, Turkey, with a 7-6(4), 4-6, 10-7 victory over second seeds Timur Khabibulin of Kazakhstan and Vladyslav Manafov of Ukraine.

The title was worth 90 ATP points and $4,650. The runners-up collected 55 points and $2,700.

It was the first title of the season for the 32-year-old Purav, and his 14th Challenger title.

In the ITF men’s Futures in Cairo, top seeds Anirudh Chandrasekar and Aryan Goveas were beaten 6-4, 7-6(3) in the doubles final by second seeds Alexander Erler and Markos Kalovelonis.

Meanwhile, in the ITF junior tournament in Colombo, Malikaa Marathe was beaten 6-2, 7-6(5) by Mei Hasegawa of Japan in the girls final. Playing her third singles final on return after injury lay-off Malikaa recovered from being down 0-4 in the second set to make a fight of it.

VM Sandeep did well to make the boys final but was beaten 6-2, 6-4 by Baoluo Zheng of China.

The results:
$75,000 Challenger men, Istanbul, Turkey
Doubles (final): Rameez Junaid (Aus) & Purav Raja bt Timur Khabibulin (Kaz) & Vladyslav Manafov (Ukr) 7-6(4), 4-6, 10-7; Semifinals: Rameez Junaid & Purav Raja bt Mikhail Elgin (Rus) & Yaraslav Shyla (Blr) 6-2, 4-6, [10-7].

$75,000 Challenger men, Shanghai, China
Doubles (semifinals): Mao-Xin Gong & Ze Zhang (Chn) bt Vijay Sundar Prashanth & Vishnu Vardhan 6-2, 7-6(4).

$15,000 ITF men, Cairo, Egypt
Doubles (final): Alexander Erler (Aut) & Markos Kalovelonis (Rus) bt Anirudh Chandrasekar & Aryan Goveas 6-4, 7-6(3); Semifinals: Anirudh Chandrasekar & Aryan Goveas bt Ali Dawani (Brn) & Adam Moundir (Sui) 6-4, 7-5.

ITF grade-5 juniors, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Boys (final): Baouluo Zheng (Chn) bt VM Sandeep 6-2, 6-4; Semifinals: Baoluo Zheng bt Rudra Kapoor 6-1, 6-0; VM Sandeep bt Tim Thomas Gauntlett (Hkg) 6-3, 6-2.

Girls (final): Mei Hasegawa (Jpn) bt Malikaa Marathe 6-2, 7-6(5); Semifinals: Malikaa Marathe bt Akshaya Suresh 6-1, 6-1; Mei Hasegawa bt Chandrika Joshi 6-3, 6-0.

Doubles (final): Chui Kei Leung (Hkg) & Jessica Christa Wirahdipoernomo (Ina) bt Archita Mahalwal & Akshaya Suresh 6-3, 7-6(5); Semifinals: Archita Mahalwal & Akshaya Suresh bt Jiaqi Huang & Yila Jiao (Chn) 7-5, 4-6, [12-10].