SASI KUMAR IN FINAL QUALIFYING ROUND IN SHYMKENT CHALLENGER

Sasi Kumar Mukund knocked out seventh seed Tenta Tokuda of Japan 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 in the second qualifying round of the $50,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Shymkent, Kazakhstan on Sunday.

In the third and final qualifying round, Mukund will play Tung-Lin Wu of Chinese Taipei.

In the €127,000 Challenger in Surbiton, three Indian players Vishnu Vardhan, Sriram Balaji and Vijay Sundar Prashanth lost in the first qualifyinig round to British and German opponents. The main draw has Yuki Bhambri as the third seed, and Ramkumar Ramanathan who has drawn second seed Jordan Thompson of Australia in the first round.

National champion Riya Bhatia qualified into the main draw of the $25,000 ITF women’s event in Singapore with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Evelyna Kontareva of Russia.

The results:
€127,000 Challenger men, Surbiton, United Kingdom
Qualifying singles (first round): BrydanKlein (GBR) bt Vishnu Vardhan 6-4, 6-3; Mark Whitehouse (GBR) bt Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-4, 6-4; Dominik KOepfer (Ger) bt Sriram Balaji 6-7(2), 6-1, 6-2.

$50,000 Challenger men, Shymkent, Kazakhstan
Qualifying singles (second round): Sasi Kumar Mukund bt Renta Tokuda (Jpn) 4-6, 6-1, 7-5; First round: Rubin Statham (Nzl) bt Sidharth Rawat 6-3, 6-2; Markus Eriksson (Swe) bt Arjun Kadhe 6-4, 6-4; Sasi Kumar Mukund bt Beibit Zhukayev (Kaz) 6-3, 6-2.

$15,000 ITF men, Padova, Italy
Qualifying singles (first round): Alex Solanki bt Kristofer Simar (Est) 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.

$15,000 ITF men, Antalya, Turkey
Qualifying singles (first round): Omar Berk Gorgun (Tur) bt Neeraj Yashpaul 7-6(1), 6-2.

$15,000 ITF men, Harare, Zimbabwe
Qualifying singles (first round): Niclas Genovese (Sui) bt Atharva Sharma 6-4, 6-1; Anshumat Srivastava bt Gunjan Jadhav 6-1, 3-6, 6-3; Kunal Vazirani bt Tanaka Chabata (Zim) 6-2, 6-3; Bharath Srinivasan Parthasarathy bt Derrick Namanya (Zim) 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(2); Taha Kapadia bt Brandon Levendale (Zim) 6-1, 6-0.

$25,000 ITF women, Changsha, China
Qualifying singles (second rund): Ashmitha Easwaramurthi bt Xiao Chen Fu (Chn) 0-6, 6-2, 6-1.

$25,000 ITF women, Obidos, Portugal
Qualifying singles (first round): Luniuska Delgado (Ven) bt Sathwika Sama 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

$25,000 ITF women, Singapore
Qualifying singles (second and final round): Riya Bhatia bt Evelina Kontareva (Rus) 6-0, 6-2.

$25,000 ITF women, Hua Hin, Thailand
Qualifying singles (second round): Nina Stadler (Sui) bt Sowjanya Havisetti 4-0 (retired); Ramya Natarajan bt Zara Brankovic (Aus) 26, 6-3, 6-2; Mai Hontama (Jpn) bt Avika Sagwal 6-1, 6-1.
First round: Sowjanya Bavisetti bt Nathapat Piwbangruk (Tha) 6-2, 6-0; Avika Sagwal bt Alexandra Cannzzaro (Aus) 6-4 (retired).

$25,000 ITF women, Namangan, Uzbekistan
Qualifying singles (first round): Sai Samhitha bt Gulchekhra Mukhammadsidikova (Uzb) 6-0, 6-0; Natasha Palha bt Yuliya Kim 9Uzb) 6-4, 6-3.

$15,000 ITF women, Antalya, Turkey
Qualifying singles (first round): Isha Budwal bt Larissa Ravanini De Souza (Bra) 6-1, 6-2.