Much to the delight of the local fans, an all-Indian doubles final was set up on Friday at the $50,000 Delhi Challenger held at the R K Khanna Tennis Stadium as Mahesh Bhupathi/Yuki Bhambri will now meet Saketh Myneni/Sanam Singh.
The unseeded pair of Bhupathi and Bhambri had it easy against fellow unseeded pair of Ze Zhang and Jimmy Wang and they registered a 6-1, 6-3 victory to storm into Saturday’s summit clash. On the other side of the draw, the Asian Games silver medallists Myneni and Singh put up a dominating performance to topple the top-seeded Indo-Italian combine Divij Sharan and Flavio Cipolla, 6-3, 6-3.
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The 28-year-old Myneni had double delight on Friday as he won his singles quarter-final too and is now the last Indian standing in the singles draw. The World No. 166, who is seeded fourth in this tournament, beat Zhe Li of China, 6-4, 6-1. In the semi-finals, he will face the second-seeded Belgian Kimmer Coppejans, who prevailed over India’s Prajnesh Gunneswaran 6-3, 6-2 in his quarter-final match.
The other semi-final will see the unseeded Cipolla clashing with the third seed Stephane Robert. While Cipolla defeated Jimmy Wang 6-3, 6-2, Robert got the better of Kazakhstan’s Dmitry Popko, 6-2, 6-0.
Ankita Raina bows out of the women’s ITF event
In the women’s ITF $25,000 event, being held simultaneously, India’s Ankita Raina went down in the semi-finals to the sixth-seeded Uzbek player Sabina Sharipova, 3-6, 4-6. The final will now be played between Sharipova and unseeded Serbian teenager Nina Stojanovic.
