Myneni and Prajnesh carry Indian challenge

Third seed Saketh Myneni battled through shoulder pain to set up a quarter-final clash against Prajnesh Gunneswaran as they are the only two Indians left in the singles event of the KPTI-MSLTA Challenger, here on Wednesday.

Myneni, playing his last tournament of the season, overcame a troublesome right shoulder to beat young Sidharth Rawat 6-0, 2-6, 6-1 while eighth seed Prajnesh pipped compatriot Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-4, 6-2 in their second round matches.

Falling by the way side were Davis Cuppers Ramkumar Ramanathan and young Sumit Nagal, who squandered three match points in a dog-fight with fourth seed Spaniard Adrian Menendez-Maceiras to lose 7-6 (2), 6-7(6), 4-6 in a marathon second round match that lasted three hours and 15 minutes.

Fifth seed Ramkumar was erratic and inconsistent in his match against Frenchman Sadio Doumbia and suffered a tame 2-6, 5-7 defeat.

Myneni was visibly in pain his match against Rawat as he struggled to play his game.

National champion Vishnu Vardhan also bowed out with 4-6, 4-6 defeat against Kazakhstan’s Dmitry Popko.

Elsewhere, top seed Russian Evgeny Donskoy beat local wild card Dhruv Sunish 6-3, 6-2 and Serbian sixth seed Nikola Melojevic overcame a fighting Frenchman Fabien Reboul 6-1, 7-6 (3).

Korean second seed Duckhee Lee took the last quarter-final spot with a 7-6 (3), 6-3 win over Swiss qualifier Luca Margaroli.