Sriram Balaji in doubles final in China Challenger

Sriram Balaji in partnership with Hans Hach Verdugo of Mexico toppled the No.1 seeds Cheng-Peng Hsieh of Chinese Taipei and Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia in the doubles semifinals of the $54,160 Challenger tennis tournament in Zhangjjiagang, China, on Friday.

The Taipei-Indonesian pair had earlier beaten Vishnu Vardhan and his partner Luca Margaroli of Switzerland in the quarterfinals.

Together as a pair, Balaji and Vishnu were knocking on the Grand Slam stage, and had won a round in Wimbledon last year. However, since Vishnu was very selective about competing in tournaments this season, owing to family commitments, Balaji had to find different partners to be regular on the circuit.

In the ITF men’s Futures event in Egypt, SD Prajwal Dev and Adil Kalyanpur set up a title clash in the doubles, against Igor Sijsling and Botic Van De Zandschulp of the Netherlands.

The results:

$54,160 Challenger, Zhangjiagang, China: Doubles (semifinals): Hans Hach Verdugo (MEX) & Sriram Balaji bt Cheng-Peng Hsieh (TPE) & Christopher Rungkat (INA) 6-4, 6-3.

$15,000 ITF men, Mornington, Australia: Singles (quarterfinals): Luca Castelnuovo (SUI) bt Karunuday Singh 7-6(5), 7-6(3).Doubles (semifinals): Calum Puttergill & Brandon Walkin (AUS) bt Aaron Addison (AUS) & Karunuday Singh 6-4, 6-4.

$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 (semifinals): SD Prajwal Dev & Adil Kalyanpur bt Robert Strombachs & Kai Wehnelt (GER) 6-2, 6-3; Igor Sijsling & Botic Van De Zandschulp (NED) bt Giovvani Samaha (LBN) & Aryan Goveas 2-6, 6-4, [10-7].