Mixed day for Indians: Purav Raja-Divij Sharan progress

File photo: Divij Sharan (R) with Tushar Liberhan

Indian duo of Purav Raja and Divij Sharan progressed to the quarterfinals of the Claro Open in Bogota with a straight sets victory in their opening encounter.

The Indian pair defeated the South American pair of Emilio Gomez and Michael Quintero 6-2 6-2 in 51 minutes. Raja-Sharan would now face the winner of the match between Fabiano De Paula-Sergio Galdos and the American-Canadian pair of Nicholas Monroe and Vasek Pospisil for a place in the semifinals.

Meanwhile, the Indian pairing of Yuki Bhambri and Sanam Singh won their opening encounter at the Binghampton Challenger in New York defeating the all American pair of Sekou Bangoura and Dennis Novikov 6-4 7-6(6). Bhambri-Singh await the winner of an all American clash between 4^th seeds Jarmere Jenkins-Austin Krajicek and Ian Van Cott-Alexander Van Cott.

Despite the success in the doubles competition, the Indians did not have a good run in the singles event in New York with only Sanam Singh managing to progress through to the next round.

Sanam Singh defeated Croatian Dino Marcin in straight sets 6-4 6-4. Sanam would now face Japan’s Yuichi Sugita in the next round. Yuki Bhambri lost out to fifth-seeded American Bradley Klahn in straight sets 6-3 6-3 while Saketh Myneni was defeated by Tunisian seventh-seed Malek Jaziri 7-5 6-1.

Prakash Amritraj retired in his first round encounter against second-seed Mischa Zverev trailing 3-2 in the second set having lost the first set 6-2.