Saketh Myneni is steadily progressing in the ATP Challenger Tour. Since the Delhi Open, where he reached the finals, Myneni reached the quarterfinals and pre-quarterfinals in the events held at Zhuhai and Guangzhou, losing to Yuki Bhambri in the former and to China's Zhang Ze in the latter. With these performances, he is now ranked in the top 150 for the first time at no.149 in the world.
With around just 80 points to defend in the next two months, most of them from two semifinal appearances at Challenger events, he could easily make the cut for both French Open and Wimbledon qualifying draws.
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At this week’s Shenzhen Challenger he faces Lukas Lacko, the champion from last week, in the first round. He also plays doubles alongside Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan.
Yuki Bhambri, seeded number one at the Zhuhai Challenger, lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Thomas Fabbiano. The following week, he retired in his second-round match against Zhe Li after being down 4-1 in the first set. The elbow injury that he was nursing during the off-season seems to have troubled him once again.
Bhambri has now dropped two places to be ranked no.113.
Myneni and Bhambri also played doubles at both the Challengers, losing in the quarters of the first and giving a walkover in the second.
Somdev’s woes continue
Somdev Devvarman’s results continue to be disappointing. He lost a three setter to upcoming star Andrey Rublev at Indian Wells, in the first qualifying round. The following week he played at a $25,000 ITF Futures in the US where he was the top seed.
Despite the seeding, he fell tamely in the quarterfinals to a lowly ranked player. Following this defeat, he entered the qualifying draw of the Futures event taking place this week, but withdrew before his first match (he had to enter the qualifiers because he had not entered the main draw before the cut-off date, for which his current ranking would have sufficed).
Leander Paes plays Challengers
With a ranking of 60, Paes couldn't manage an entry into the Indian Wells doubles draw. In the second week of the tournament, he entered the Irving Challenger (frequented by early losers at Indian Wells) with Lukas Rosol. The duo were seeded fourth and managed to reach the semifinals before losing to second seeds Chris Guccione and Andre Sa. As a result, he has dropped one place to no. 61.
The team of Paes and Jeremy Chardy are placed in the bottom of the alternates list at the Miami Masters.
Given his poor form this year, we could see him going down further in the rankings.
Mahesh Bhupathi received a wildcard to the Indian Wells Masters, but his partner Stan Wawrinka had to withdraw as he was injured.
The team of ‘Santina’ faced their second loss of the season in the second round of the same event. They will look to defend the Miami title this fortnight.
Prarthana Thombare closes in on top-200 spot
Prarthana Thombare played the biggest final of her career on Saturday when she and her Japanese partner Akiko Omae took on top seeds Lyudmyla and Nadiia Kichenok. The top-seeded Ukrainians, regulars at grand slams, eventually won the match rather easily against the Indo-Japanese pair with a score of 6-1 6-4.
Last week, Thombare had bagged a title with the same partner at the ITF $25K event at Puebla, Mexico. Seeded third, they fared well in the first three matches, dropping no sets en route. In the final, they faced the top seeds Irina Khromacheva and Ksenia Lykina. After winning the first set, they lost the second set to the Russians, but finally managed a win with a 10-8 super tiebreaker score.
\With these results, she is now ranked at no.228 in doubles.
