Top-seeded Sanam Singh defeated the unranked De Zhu of China 6-3, 6-1 in the third round of the singles qualifying event in the Asia Pacific Australian Open wildcard play-off in Nanjing, China, on Tuesday.
In the final qualifying round, the 332nd ranked Sanam will play the 1320th ranked Yuqing Ning of China, who progressed past compatriot Zheng Zhang 6-4, 6-2. Yuqing had progressed in the second quarter in the absence of the third-seeded Vaja Uzakov of Uzbekistan who had failed to report. If he makes the main event, Sanam will join Yuki Bhambri, Vishnu Vardhan and Sriram Balaji in the main draw.
The second-seeded Mao-Xing Gong will play Xiao Qi for the second qualifier’s slot.
Yuki-Divij get top billing
Meanwhile, Yuki and Divij Sharan were seeded No.1 in the doubles main draw and given a first round bye. Purav Raja and Vishnu Vardhan were seeded third and drawn to play Yuqing Ning and Zhouyang Qiu of China in the pre-quarterfinals.
Sriram Balaji and Sanam Singh will be the third Indian pair in doubles and will play Zhaoyi Cao of China and Andy Lau of Hong Kong in the first round.
The second-seeded Hsin-Han Lee and Hsien Yin Peng of Chinese Taipei apart from the fourth-seeded Danai Udomchoke of Thailand and Jimmy Wang of Chinese Taipei will be the other leading teams in the fray for the solitary wild card for the Australian Open.
In women’s doubles, Rushmi Chakravarthi and Ankita Raina will play Ting Li and Qiang Wang of China in the first round.
