Divij Sharan and Artem Sitak knock out top seeds in Auckland ATP

Divij Sharan in partnership with Artem Sitak of New Zealand knocked out the top seeds John Peers and Michael Venus 7-6(4), 7-6(3) in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the ATP Tour event in Auckland on Wednesday.

In the quarterfinals, the Indo-Kiwi pair will Sander Gille and Joren Vliegen of Belgium who got a walkover in their match.
In the Challenger in Bendigo, Australia, Sasikumar Mukund was beaten in the singles pre-quarterfinals by seventh seed Marcos Giron of the US.

In the Challenger in Bangkok, Purav Raja, seeded fourth with Adil Shamasdin of Canada, was beaten 10-6 in the super tie-break by the American pair of Evan King and Hunter Reese in the doubles pre-quarterfinals.

In the $15,000 ITF women’s event in Monastir, Tunisia, Zeel Desai reached the pre-quarterfinals of singles, but opted to skip the doubles event, after having won the title last week with Anastasia Tikhonova.

The results:

$610,010 ATP, Auckland, New Zealand
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Artem Sitak (NZL) & Divij Sharan bt John Peers (AUS) & Michael Venus (NZL) 7-6(4), 7-6(3).

$54,160 Challenger, Bangkok, Thailand
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Evan King & Hunter Reese (US) bt Adil Shamasdin (CAN) & Purav Raja 7-6(5), 3-6, 10-6.

$54,160 Challenger, Bendigo, Australia
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Marcos Giron (US) bt Sasikumar Mukund 6-4, 6-3.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Sander Arends (NED) & Cheng-Peng Hsieh (TPE) w.o. Fajing Sun (CHN) & Sasikumar Mukund.

$15,000 ITF men, Antalya, Turkey
Singles (first round): Calin Manda (ROU) bt Aryan Goveas 7-5, 6-2; Julien Cagnina (BEL) bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-2, 6-2.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Esteban Bruna & Nicolas Bruna (CHI) bt Lautaro Aqustin Falabella (ARG) & Nitin Kumar Sinha 7-5, 6-3; Luigi Sorrentino & Lorenzo Vatteroni (ITA) bt Sahil Gaware & Aryan Goveas 6-3, 6-3.

$15,000 ITF men, Cairo, Egypt
Singles (first round): Yurii Dzhavakian (UKR) bt SD Prajwal Dev 6-2, 6-3; Gian Marco Ortenzi (ITA) bt Muthu Aadhitiya Senthilkumar 6-3, 6-1; Daniele Capecchi (ITA) bt Nishith Naveen 6-0, 6-0; Philip Bachmaier (AUT) bt Taha Kapadia 6-3, 6-2.

$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia
Singles (first round): Zeel Desai bt Sinja Kraus (AUT) 6-3, 7-5.

(Courtesy: The Hindu)