East Asian Challengers, 2019

[jaydeep]

This is Bala's biggest title win on the Challenger level ... His only second title in the four finals, before this, he won the Samarkand Challenger with Vishnu in May 2018.

[sameerph]

This is Bala's biggest title win on the Challenger level ... His only second title in the four finals, before this, he won the Samarkand Challenger with Vishnu in May 2018.

He also won 3 challenger titles in 2017 with Vishnu - Fergana,Chengdu and Jinan - Jinan was $150K one which is the same level as this title.

His first title with a partner other than Vishnu. He will get very close to top 100 again, he is at 101 in live ranking.

[jaydeep]

Oh, thanks Sameer for correcting me.

[sameerph]

Mukund loses to Chinese in first round.

At $162K+H Anning Challenger 2019, China

[R1] Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,264) l. Yan Bai (CHN,356) 16 46

I saw the major part of the match. Although Bai was decent, Mulund made tonnes of errors which made it easy for the Chinese. Mukund's game has suddenly fallen just when he was looking to be making a charge towards top 200. Pressure of having to defend points ? He had 7 points to defend this week which he loses. He has another 30 points to defend next week.

Saketh's match to come later today.

[PKBasu]

[R1] Saketh Myneni (IND, 256) d. Vaclav Safranek (CZE, 325) 62 64

Comfortable win for Saketh, who now plays his doubles partner Prajnesh (second seed in singles) in R2.

[PKBasu]

Ramkumar is partnering Vishnu in the doubles this week. So we have two all-Indian pairs, and a half-Indian pair (Balaji-Cerretani) are seeded 2. The Ratiwatana twins have broken up (just for this week?).

[RohitG]

Good start for India #1 and #2 as both win in straight sets

[suresh]

At $162K+H Anning Challenger 2019, China

[R2] (2) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,82) b Saketh Myneni (IND,256) 6-2 6-4
[R2] (5) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,141) b Yan Bai (CHN,356) 6-4 6-4

[PQF] (2) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,82) vs (15) A. Pavlasek (CZE,211)
[PQF] (5) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,141) vs Zhizhen Zhang (CHN,355)

[arjun2761]

Good to see confident wins by the Gunner and RamK. Doing well at the higher level Asian events is critical for them to maintain their rankings and give them the opportunity to move further up.

Worth noting that the Gunner is now at a career high of 80 and RamK is at 157.

[jaydeep]

Saki and Prajnesh started with straight sets win ... Next, they r facing the 3rd seeds Aussie pair.
Bala with Cerretani started with straight sets win over the Chinese wild card pair ... Next, they r facing another local wild card pairing of Sun and Bai.
Ram and Vishnu lost in two tie-breaks against the 4th seeds Weissborn and Arends.

At $162K+H Anning Challenger 2019, China

[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l (4) Sander Arends (NED)/ Tristan-Samuel Weissborn (AUT) 67(2) 67(7)
[R1] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) bt Enrique Lopez Perez (ESP)/ Luca Margaroli (SUI) 76(5) 64
[R1] (2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Jamie Cerretani (USA) bt (WC) Yecong He (CHN)/ Di Wu (CHN) 64 76(4)

[QF] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) vs (3) Max Purcell (AUS)/ Luke Saville (AUS)
[QF] (2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Jamie Cerretani (USA) vs (WC) Yan Bai (CHN)/ Fajing Sun (CHN)

[Ullhas]

A good win by RamK to move to quarter final.

[PQF] (5) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,141) bt Zhizhen Zhang (CHN,355) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3

[Ullhas]

And Prajnesh also moves to Quarters with straight set victory.

[PQF] (2) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,82) d (15) A. Pavlasek (CZE,211) 7-5, 6-3.

So if RamK and Prajnesh wins next round; it will be an all Indian semifinal.

[sameerph]

Nice to see both of them moving up to the QF although RamK had to fight hard for his win.

At $162K+H Anning Challenger 2019, China

[QF] (5) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,157) vs. (3) Kamil Majchrzak (POL,130)

[QF] (2) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,80) vs. (10) Nikola Milojevic (SRB,164)

If they both win their QF's, we will have an all Indian semi final.

[Ullhas]

Sadly Prajnesh and Saketh lose in doubles QF.

[QF] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) l (3) Max Purcell (AUS)/ Luke Saville (AUS) 1-6, 1-6.

[arjun2761]

Nice win by both RamK and the Gunner. Tough QF matchups against opponents who are probably more comfortable on clay.

Good to see the Gunner dominate a good opponent on clay as he put a lot of pressure on his opponents service games while holding his own serve quite easily throughout the match.