The Indian hopes of a doubles wild card for the Australian Open came down crashing as three pairs, including the No.1 and No.3 seeds, bit the dust in the quarterfinals of the Asia Pacific Australian Open wildcard play-off tournament in Nanjing, China, on Thursday.
The Indian challenge in the singles too is now confined to Yuki Bhambri. Vishnu Vardhan, after winning his pre-quarterfinal, has pulled out of his quarterfinal match against Danai Udomchoke with a knee injury.
Top-seeded pair of Bhambri and Divij Sharan lost to China’s Mao-Xing Gong and Ze Zhang while third seeds Purav Raja and Vishnu Vardhan fell to Di Wu and Zhizhen Zhang, also of China.
The results:
Men (pre-quarterfinals): Ze Zhang bt Sanam Singh 5-7, 6-2, 6-2; Di Wu bt Sriram Balaji 6-2, 6-1; Vishnu Vardhan bt Hsin-Han Lee (Tpe) 6-2, 6-3; Yuki Bhambri bt Yuqing Ning (Chn) 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
Doubles (quarterfinals): Mao-Xin Gong & Ze Zhang (Chn) bt Yuki Bhambri & Divij Sharan 7-6(1), 6-4; Danai Udomchoke (Tha) & Jimmy Wang (Tpe) bt Sriram Balaji & Sanam Singh 6-4, 6-1; Di Wu & Zhizhen Zhang (Chn) bt Purav Raja & Vishnu Vardhan 6-4, 7-5.
Women (pre-quarterfinals): Yuxuan Zhang (Chn) bt Ankita Raina 6-1, 6-1; Yifan Xu (Chn) bt Prerna Bhambri 6-1, 6-1.
