Pune Challenger: Prajnesh Gunneswaran makes exit but Ramkumar, Mukund, Nagal reach quarters

India’s top singles player Prajnesh Gunneswaran bowed out of the KPIT-MSLTA Challenger but Sumit Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan set up an all-Indian quarterfinal, on Thursday. Also moving to the quarterfinals was Sasi Kumar Mukund as the home players continued to be in title contention.

Top seed Prajnesh had the first opportunity to get break in the decisive set but he could not advantage of the chance and lost 6-4 5-7 6-3 to Dutch 14th seed Tim Van Rijthoven at the Balewadi Sports Complex. India number two Nagal just walked into the quarterfinals as his Russian opponent Ivan Nedelko retired at the beginning of the contest due to back spasm. Nagal was leading 2-0 in the opening set when Nedelko withdrew.

He will not clash with sixth seed Ramkumar, who overcame the challenge of Turkey’s 12th seeded Cem Ilkel 6-3 6-4 in one hour 11 minutes . Eighth Mukund demolished Turkish Ergi Kirkin 6-0 6-2 in 65 minutes to set up his last-eight clash with second seeded Australian James Duckworth, who prevented another all-Indian quarterfinal by ending the impressive run of Manish Sureshkumar with a 6-1 6-2 win. The 20-year-old Sureshkumar took seven ATP points.

Fourth seeded Steven Diez, fifth seeded Jay Clarke and seventh seed Roberto Ortega-Olmedo of Spain were the other players to make it to the last eight. In the doubles, third seeds Arjun Kadhe and Saketh Myneni edged past Russian pair of Bogdan Bobrov and Ivan Nedelko 6-4 4-6 16-14 to move to the semifinals.

They will take on second seed pair of Vishnu Vardhan and Toshide Matsui, who rallied to beat Steven Diez and Roberto Ortega-Olmedo 3-6 6-2 10-4.

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