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Only Prajnesh is in the singles main-draw and having a tough match against 4th seed Robert.

This week, Vishnu is not playing so Bala is partnering Prajnesh and they r playing local wild-cards ... Jeevan and Chris r 2nd seed and our both pairs can face each-other in the quarters if they win the first round.

At $50K+H Kyoto Challenger 2018, Japan

[R1] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,242) vs (4) Stephane Robert (FRA,162)

Doubles
[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND) vs (WC) Daiki Hayashi (JPN)/ Kosuke Shibano (JPN)
[R1] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Christopher Rungkat (INA) vs Zhe Li (CHN)/ Stephane Robert (FRA)

Why is Sumit not playing here ? He should be taking these opportunities to play more tournaments while he has no points to defend. He has just played 2 matches so far this year. ( 1 at AO qualies and 1 last week in Chennai).

At $50K+H Kyoto Challenger 2018, Japan

An easy win for Balaji and Prajnesh to start with against the local wildcard pair.

Doubles
[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND) d. (WC) Daiki Hayashi (JPN)/ Kosuke Shibano (JPN) : 7-5, 6-1

Excellent upset win by Prajnesh.

At $50K+H Kyoto Challenger 2018, Japan

[R1] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,242) d. (4) Stephane Robert (FRA,158) 63 16 64

Robert won a challenger title just last month in Australia and reached final round of qualies at Australian open. So, this is a very good win over an in-form player.

He is up against 30 year old German next,

[R2] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,242) vs. Tim Puetz (GER,293)

Wow , this guy has an uncanny ability to surprise just when you write him or donot expect anything from him ,
he did it last year reaching the semis of US challenger and now against Stephane Robert who inspite his age , but by all accounts is one of the most dangerous player on the tour
Hope he can get few more victories under his belt in this tournament.

At $50K+H Kyoto Challenger 2018, Japan

Doubles
[R1] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Christopher Rungkat (INA) l. Zhe Li (CHN)/ Stephane Robert (FRA) : 3-6, 1-6

Li and Robert will next face Balaji and Prajnesh in the Quarter finals

[QF] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND) vs. Zhe Li (CHN)/ Stephane Robert (FRA)

sameerph wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2018 6:36 am Excellent upset win by Prajnesh.

At $50K+H Kyoto Challenger 2018, Japan

[R1] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,242) d. (4) Stephane Robert (FRA,158) 63 16 64

pleasant surprise!

Excellent win for Prajnesh but an equally tough opponent waiting in R2.

Memorable win for Prajnesh, and definitely a pleasant surprise.

Jeevan/Rungkat’s R1 loss was a surprise too, albeit an unpleasant one.

Bala-Prajnesh r in the semis, they defeated Li-Robert in the straight sets.

At $50K+H Kyoto Challenger 2018, Japan

[QF] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND) bt Zhe Li (CHN)/ Stephane Robert (FRA) 64 64

This is turning into a pretty good tournament for Prajnesh -- and Stephane Robert must be cursing him for beating him at both singles and doubles!

Prajnesh, in particular, rarely plays doubles, but is blazing away in partnership with Balaji this week.

Prajnesh couldn't repeat his heroics and went down in straight sets 7-6, 6-2 , In fact the first set was closely fought and both seemed evenly matched and hardly anything separated the two and both were holding on to their serves comfortably, In fact in the TB Prajnesh was even a mini break up. But overall his opponent seemed a better player , playing the big points well and once he had the first set in the bag , stamped his authority to emphatically seal the second set and the match
Had Prajnesh won the first set it would have been a different story.

Next week on wards a series of 3 challengers commence in South China , and in a first we have zero or negligible Indian presence in those challengers as compared to previous years when anywhere between 4 to 8 of our guys used to sign up in each one of them and was a happy hunting ground with many reaping big rewards as well , Sanam with his run to the semis at 75K Shenzhen, Yuki picked up bucket full of points , Saki too enjoyed lot of success here in China , and ironically the injury which has changed his life as far as his tennis career is concerned too happened here in China when about to grab the title he had to retire mid way in his semis and after that ,things are not the same anymore ,ever since that fateful day

Sad that Prajnesh could not capitalise on his first round upset win. He still has to find a way to win consistently at challenger level.

Rajiv wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2018 4:13 am Next week on wards a series of 3 challengers commence in South China , and in a first we have zero or negligible Indian presence in those challengers as compared to previous years when anywhere between 4 to 8 of our guys used to sign up in each one of them

There is one more challenger in Yoklohoma,Japan next week where Prajnesh is in the main draw. After that there are 3 weeks of South China challengers.

The cut off there is very high this time, 206 in first week, 198 in second week. Only Yuki and RamK would have made the main draw and they are both playing Indian Wells/Miami ( rightly so). I guess Sumit, Prajnesh might be in there in the alternates. Bala,Vishnu, Jeevan should be there in doubles. All other Indians are playing Indian futures series.

Bala-Prajnesh lost in the doubles semi finals.

At $50K+H Kyoto Challenger 2018, Japan

[SF] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND) l. Go Soeda (JPN) / Yatusaka Uchiyama (JPN) 46 67(6)

A tough match for Prajnesh against in-form Thompson.
This week, Bala is playing with Uchiyama and they r the 2nd seeds ... They can struggle against German pair as this is new pairing.

At $75K Yokohama Challenger 2018, Japan

[R1] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,242) vs (1) Jrdan Thompson (AUS,95)

Doubles
[R1] (2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN) vs Tobias Kamke (GER)/ Tim Puetz (GER)