Prajnesh and Ankita reach the quarterfinals in China

Top seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran beat former Asian junior champion Tsung-Hua Yang of Chinese Taipei in the pre-quarterfinals of the $162,480 Challenger tennis tournament in Ningbo, China, on Thursday.

In the quarterfinals, Prajnesh will be challenged by Steven Diez of Canada.

In the $100,000 ITF women’s tournament in Suzhou, China, Ankita Raina bounced back from a slow start to beat Hanyu Guo of China 1-6, 6-1, 6-3. It was the third victory in four meetings for Ankita against the Chinese, who had beaten her in the same tournament two years ago.

Ankita will face fourth seed Lin Zhu of China in the quarterfinals.

There was more drama before the day ran out for Ankita, as she survived five match points in the doubles quarterfinals with Rosalie van der Hoek of the Netherlands before beating Ksenia Laskutova and Raluca Georgiana Serban 15-13 in the super tie-break.

In the $25,000 ITF women’s event in Nigeria, Rutuja Bhosale outplayed the reigning national champion Sowjanya Bavisetti for the loss of two games in the pre-quarterfinals. Rutuja also made the doubles semifinals with Laura Pigossi of Brazil.

The results:

$162,480 Challenger, Ningbo, China
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Tsung-Hua Yang (TPE) 7-6(1), 6-3.

$25,000 ITF men, Lagos, Nigeria
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): David Pichler (AUT) bt Jatin Dahiya 6-1, 6-1; Benjamin Lock (ZIM) bt Dhruv Sunish 6-2, 6-0.

$15,000 ITF men, Doha, Qatar
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Antoine Bellier (SUI) & Quentin Folliot (FRA) bt Mikalai Haliak (BLR) & Rishab Agarwal 7-6(4), 4-6, [10-5].

$15,000 ITF men, Getafe Madrid, Spain
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Alejandro Garcia (ESP) bt Digvijay Pratap Singh 6-2, 6-4.

$100,000 ITF women, Suzhou, China
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Ankita Raina bt Hanyu Guo (CHN) 1-6, 6-1, 6-3.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Rosalie van der Hoek (NED) & Ankita Raina bt Ksenia Laskutova (RUS) & Raluca Georgiana Serban (CYP) 2-6, 6-2, [15-13].

$25,000 ITF women, Lagos, Nigeria
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Riya Bhatia bt Isabella Kruger (RSA) 7-5, 6-4; Rutuja Bhosale bt Sowjanya Bavisetti 6-1, 6-1; First round: Sowjanya Bavisetti bt Zoe Kruger (RSA) 3-6, 7-5, 4-1 (retired).

Doubles (quarterfinals): Laura Pigossi (BRA) & Rutuja Bhosale w.o. Isabella Kruger & Zoe Kruger (RSA); Sandra Samir (EGY) & Prarthana Thombare bt Chiraz Bechri (TUN) & Carla Touly (FRA) 6-2, 6-2; Tamara Curovic (SRB) & Valeriya Strakhova (UKR) bt Jasmin Jebawy (GER) & Sri Vaishnavi Peddi Reddy 6-3, 6-1.

(Courtesy: The Hindu)