Second seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran sailed into the pre-quarterfinals of the $162,480 Challenger tennis with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Shuichi Sekiguchi of Japan in the second round on Tuesday.
In the first round, Sasi Kumar Mukund was at his fighting best as he made light of a mid-match slump to beat Goncalo Oliveira 7-6(8), 3-6, 7-6(6). Mukund converted two breakpoints to three by his opponent. He won 114 points to 116 by his opponent, but Mukund won the points that mattered in the climax.
In the $500,000 WTA event in Guangzhou, Ankita Raina was beaten in the second and final qualifying round by Magdalena Frech of Poland 6-1, 6-1.
In the ITF men’s Futures in Cairo, Dhruv Sunish combined with Muzammil Murtaza of Pakistan to beat top seeds Lenny Hampel of Austria and Aryan Goveas in straight sets.
The results: $500,000 WTA, Guangzhou: Qualifying: Second and final round: Magdalena Frech (Pol) bt Ankita Raina 6-1, 6-1; First round: Ankita bt Sachia Vickery (US) 6-3, 6-2.
$162,480 Challenger, Kaohsiung, Chinese Taipei: Second round: Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Shuichi Sekiguchi (Jpn) 6-3, 6-2; First round: Sasi Kumar Mukund bt Goncalo Oliveira 7-6(8), 3-6, 7-6(6).
$15,000 ITF men, Nanchang, China: First round: Anirudh Chandrasekar bt Aliaksandr Liaonenka (Blr) 6-3, 6-4.
$15,000 ITF, Cairo: Doubles: Pre-quarterfinals: Men: Muzammil Murtaza (Pak) & Dhruv Sunish bt Lenny Hampel (Aut) & Aryan Goveas 6-3, 6-4. Women: Sathwika Sama & Saumya Vig bt Bojana Marinkovic (Srb) & Anastasia Zolotareva (Rus) 6-1, 6-2; Tamara Milosevic (Srb) & Avika Sagwal bt Margarita Lazareva & Anna Makhorikina (Rus) 2-6, 6-4, [10-8].
$15,000 ITF women, Tabarka, Tunisia: First round: Alessandra Simone (Ita) bt Humera Shaik 6-1, 6-1; Diana Chehoudi (Ned) bt Jennifer Luikham 6-2, 6-1; Alice Gillan (GBR) bt Niditra Rajmohan 6-1, 6-1; Katharina Hering (Ger) bt Bhuvana Kalva 6-1, 6-1.
