Indian stars mean business and progress

Sania Mirza continued to stay in focus as she won her third match in four days to make the semifinals of women’s doubles in the China Open in Beijing.

The 26-year-old Sania, in partnership with Cara Black, beat Yung-Jan Chan of Chinese Taipei and Jie Zheng of China 6-4, 6-1 in just over an hour in the quarterfinals. The Indo-Zimbabwean pair which had marched through to the title, unseeded, last week in Tokyo, overcame an early break to beat two strong players who could not combine well as a team.

In the American circuit, Sania had partnered Jie Zheng, who had won the Australian Open and Wimbledon doubles titles in 2006, the year in which the short-built Chinese beat the Indian lass in the singles final of the Doha Asian Games in three sets. The 12^th ranked Sania and Jie Zheng had enjoyed considerable success as they reached the US Open doubles semifinals and had also won the title in New Haven, which incidentally has been the only title of the season so far for the 5’ 4’’ tall Chinese.

In the semifinals, Sania and Cara will play the top-seeded Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci of Italy.

In the men’s event, the top-seeded Leander Paes and Daniel Nestor of Canada overcame David Marrero and Fernando Verdasco of Spain 7-6(8), 6-3 to set up a semifinal against Fabio Fognini and Andreas Seppi of Italy.

Meanwhile, in the $1,437,800 Rakuten Japan Open in Tokyo, the fourth-seeded Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France overcame a matchpoint to beat alternates Andre Begemann and Martin Emmrich of Germany in the quarterfinals.

In the semifinal, the Indo-French pair will face Treat Huey of Philippines and Dominic Inglot of Britain who knocked out the second-seeded Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez of Spain for the loss of six games.

Incidentally, Bopanna and partner were the only seeds left in the draw, as even the top-seeded Bryans, Bob and Mike, had been knocked out in the first round itself, by Nicolas Almagro of Spain and Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay, 7-5, 1-6, 10-6. It was another matter that almagro and Cuevas could not muster more than six games in the next round against Jamie Murray of Britain andJohn Peers of Australia.

Mithun Murali makes quarterfinals

KIGALI (RWANDA), OCT. 3:

Mithun Murali fought his way past the seventh-seeded Hassan Ndayishimiye of Burundi 1-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the pre-quarterfinals of the $15,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament on Wednesday.

In the quarterfinals, he will challenge the top-seeded Gerald Melzer of Austria. The second-seeded Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan also cruised into the quarterfinals, dropping a second game in two matches.

The results:

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Mithun Murali bt Hassan Ndayishimiye (Bdi) 1-6, 6-2, 6-4; Alexander Lazov (Bul) bt Sagar Ahuja 6-0, 6-0; Jeevan Nedunchehziyan bt Henry Atseye (Ngr) 6-1, 6-0.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Sagar Ahuja and Kunal Anand bt Sanni Adamu and Henry Atseye (Ngr) 6-3, 7-6(6); James Linger (Sui) and Mithun Murali bt Alexander Lazov (Bul) and Yannick Mertens (Bel) 6-7(1), 6-1, 10-8.

Akash Wagh gets past Saketh Myneni in doubles

MESHREF (KUWAIT), OCT. 3:

Akash Wagh in partnership with Matias Castro of Argentina beat the third-seeded Saketh Myneni and Patrick Davidson of the US 6-2, 1-6, 10-7 in the doubles quarterfinals of the $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament on Wednesday.

In the semifinals, Akash and partner will face the top-seeded Lewis Burton and Marcus Willis of Britain.

The results:

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Matias Castro (Arg) bt Jatin Dahiya 6-1, 6-1.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Matias Castro (Arg) and Akash Wagh bt Patrick Davidson (US) and Saketh Myneni 6-2, 1-6, 10-7.

Ramkumar in doubles semifinals

SABADELL (SPAIN), OCT. 3:

The second-seeded R. Ramkumar and David Perez Sanz of Spain made the doubles semifinals with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Lucas Mccone and Thomas Mccone of Belgium in the $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament on Wednesday.

In the semifinals, the Indo-Spanish duo will be challenged by Jaume Pla Malfeito of Spain and Jean-Marc Werner of Germany.

Rishika Sunkara loses doubles quarterfinals

SHARM EL SHEIKH (EGYPT), OCT. 3:

The top-seeded Rishika Sunkara and Margarita Lazareva of Russia were knocked out 2-6, 6-1, 10-3 by Samantha Koelliker of Switzerlanad andella Leivo of Finland in the doubles quarterfinals of the $10,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament. Both the teams had a bye in the first round.

The fourth-seeded Rishika was yet to play her singles pre-quarterfinals against qualifier Anabel Ossombi of Ukraine after a bye in the first round.

Snehadevi Reddy in ITF juniors quarterfinals

HONG KONG, OCT. 3:

The top-seeded Snehadevi Reddy made the quarterfinals of the ITF grade-3 junior tennis tournament.

The other Indian in the fray, the second-seeded Simran Kaur Sethi was outplayed by Zhanian Wei of China in the second round.

In the doubles pre-quarterfinals also, the top-seeded Snehadevi and Simran were shocked by Pei-Wen Kao of Chinese Taipei and Jiayuan Xue of China.

The results:

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Snehadevi Reddy bt Chaoyi Chen (Chn) 6-3, 6-1; Zhanian Wei (Chn) bt Simran Kaur Sethi 6-2, 6-0.

First round: Snehadevi Reddy bt Wing Chun Law (Hkg) 6-1, 6-3; Simran Kaur Sethi bt Miyo Kobayashi (Jpn) 6-1, 6-1.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Pei-Wen Kao (Tpe) and Jiayuan Xue (Chn) bt Snehadevi Reddy and Simran Kaur Sethi 6-3, 6-3.