Bengaluru, Feb 9: The top-seeded Indian team of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Purav Raja moved to the doubles quarterfinals of the Bengaluru Open after prevailing against Croatia’s Borna Gojo and Bulgaria’s Dimitar Kuzmanov, here on Wednesday.
The Indian team had to be on its toes as it eked out a tough 6-4 6-7 (2) 10-8 win over the alternate entrants.
Also moving to the last-eight pairs stage were Ramnkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni and the team of N Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan.
Ramkumar and Myneni had an easy day, beating Markos Kalovelonis (GRE) and Toshihide Matsui (JPN) 6-3 6-3 but Balaji and Vardhan had to work hard in getting past Mathias Bourgue (FRA) and Kimmer Coppejans (BEL) 4-6 6-4 10-3.
In the singles, fourth seed Hugo Grenier of France lost 1-6 4-6 to Chun-hsin Tseng of Taipei and qualifier Borna Gojo of Croatia sent third seed Australian Aleksandar Vukic home with a 7-5, 6-3 victory to advance to the quarterfinals.
Another qualifier Gabriel Decamps of Brazil ousted Italian Gian Marco Moroni 6-2 5-7, 7-6 (3) in an epic three-hour five minute battle. “I didn’t have much practice during the pandemic but of late I my game is falling shape and I am playing well,” said a visibly tired Borna who has played four matches in a row.
Meanwhile, India’s Prajnesh Gunneswaran will take on top seed Jiri Vesely of Czech Republic on Thursday. (PTI)
