Yuki Bhambri and Mahesh Bhupathi outplayed Yannick Mertens of Belgium and Stephane Robert of France 7-5, 6-1 to make the semifinals of the $50,000 ATP Challenger here on Thursday.
Saketh Myneni will be joined by wild-card Prajnesh Gunneswaran in the quarterfinals, as the latter’s opponent, seventh seed Bai Yan of China, conceded a walkover, owing to an upset stomach. Bai Yan had put up a splendid performance against Sriram Balaji in the first round, but a spell of ‘Delhi Belly’ looked to have struck him, and the tournament.
Prajnesh will play second seed Kimmer Coppejans of Belgium in the quarterfinals. The Belgian had played two solid matches, but his camp too was hit by the ‘Delhi Belly’. Coppejans and Joris de Loore had to pull out of their doubles quarterfinals against top seeds Flavio Cipolla of Italy and Divij Sharan.
Interestingly, Cipolla had stopped de Loore, who had shocked top seed Bhambri in the first round, in the pre-quarterfinals.
He will play Jimmy Wang of Chinese Taipei, who beat eighth seed and compatriot Ti Chen for the loss of five games.
The 26-year-old Prajnesh, who trains at the Schuttler Waske Tennis-University in Germany, has been slugging it out in the professional circuit for about ten years, but has never had it this good in a Challenger.
The 447th-ranked Indian has won three Futures titles, including one last year. He has ensured himself 15 ATP points with his run here.
In an entertaining doubles quarterfinal, Mertens and Robert saved set-points at 3-5 and managed to twice hit Bhupathi at the net, including once on his chest. However, Bhupathi responded well, and even got his own back once.
The Indian team was too sharp to be stretched any further in the second set.
Myneni and Sanam Singh, the defending champions, had a stiff fight from Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Vijay Sundar Prashanth but were too classy at the crunch and won the key points with remarkable assurance to set up a semifinal against Cipolla and Divij Sharan.
Bhupathi and Bhambri will play Jimmy Wang and Zhang Ze, the Taipei-Chinese combination, who beat Mohit Mayur and Kaza Vinayak Sharma.
The results: Pre-quarterfinals: Flavio Cipolla (Ita) bt Joris de Loore (Bel) 6-4, 7-6(2); Jimmy Wang (Tpe) bt Ti Chen (Tpe) 6-3, 6-2; Prajnesh Gunneswaran w.o. Bai Yan (Chn); Kimmer Coppejans (Bel) bt Maxime Janvier (Fra) 6-2, 6-4. Doubles (quarterfinals): Flavio Cipolla (Ita) & Divij Sharan w.o. Kimer Coppejans & Joris De Loore (Bel); Saketh Myneni & Sanam Singh bt Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan & Vijay Sundar Prashanth 7-6(4), 6-4; Jimmy Wang (Tpe) & Zhang Ze (Chn) bt Mohit Mayur & Kaza Vinayak Sharma 6-1, 6-4; Yuki Bhambri & Mahesh Bhupathi bt Yannick Mertens (Bel) & Stephane Robert (Fra) 7-5, 6-1.
