Indian tennis round-up: Rohan Bopanna reaches Vienna quarter-finals; Leander Paes exits Brest Challenger

Indian tennis ace Rohan Bopanna and his Uruguayan partner, Pablo Cuevas started their Erste Bank Open campaign with a facile 6-2, 6-1 win over Philipp Kohlschreiber and Max Mirnyi to enter the quarter-finals of this ATP 500 tournament in Vienna on Tuesday. The Indo-Uruguayan combine was brilliant in this 42-minute clash and gave no chance to their experienced opponents to settle into this match.

Bopanna and Cuevas won 88% of their first serve points in this heavily one-sided contest and won four service breaks, without conceding any break point.

They have an uphill task up next as they take on the top seeds and reigning Wimbledon champions Marcelo Melo and Lukasz Kubot.

Paes and Raja upset in Brest, Sharan advances

Elsewhere, Indian tennis players had a mixed day in the ATP Challenger circuit. Third seeds Leander Paes and Purav Raja squandered a one-set lead to slump to a 6-2, 6-7(8), 3-10 defeat to the unseeded French pair of Tristan Lamasine and Hugo Nys in the quarter-finals of the Brest Challenger in France.

Meanwhile, Divij Sharan continues to excel. A week after capturing his third career ATP doubles title in Antwerp, the southpaw teamed up with Scott Clayton of Great Britain to upset the second seeds Roman Jebavy and Adil Shamasdin 6-4, 7-6(4) in the first round at the same tournament.

Nedunchezhiyan in Suzhou quarters

At the Suzhou Challenger in China, top seeds Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Christopher Rungkat made a smooth progress into the quarter-finals. The Indo-Indonesian pair needed just 52 minutes to see off Duckhee Lee and Hiroki Moriya, 6-3, 6-3.

The former have come to this tournament on the back of a runner-up finish at the Ningbo Challenger last week.

Bhambri shines in Ho Chi Minh City

Yuki Bhambri, who reached the Kremlin Cup pre-quarter-finals last week, made it through to the singles quarter-finals of the Ho Chi Minh City Challenger in Vietnam. The World No. 142 pummelled Taipei player, Ti Chen 6-3, 6-1 in the second round in 1 hour 28 minutes.

Earlier in the first round, the fourth seeded Indian prevailed over New Zealand’s Jose Statham, 6-1, 6-4.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran reached the second round of this event with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Australian Marc Polmans. He next takes on the top seed Taylor Fritz for a place in the last-eight. Sumit Nagal and Saketh Myneni both made first-round exits from this tournament.

Myneni had much better fortunes in the doubles draw where he reached the quarter-finals alongside his compatriot, N Vijay Sundar Prashanth. The two edged the fourth seeds Peter Polansky and Akira Santillan, 6-7(4), 6-2, 10-8.