Sania Mirza, Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna in fine form

There was a lot of good news from China and Japan, as the leading Indian tennis players emphasised their doubles supremacy on Wednesday.

Mahesh Bhupathi, however, was understandably low profile as he lost his first round against the formidable Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Stanislas Wawrinka of Swtizerland 3-6, 3-6 in the China Open on Tuesday. 

After a good run earlier in the season, Mahesh has been in a bit of struggle in recent weeks, especially after the cracker of a quarterfinal in Wimbledon against the Bryan twins, Bob and Mike.

Though Mahesh seeded second with Robert Lindstedt of Sweden, it was tough against the World No.1 singles player and the former Olympic doubles champion.

While Leander Paes is set to gross $400,000 in prize money for the season and Sania has won $322,613 so far, Mahesh has just about managed to break past the $200,000 mark. A 16-14 win-loss record this season, may not be inspiring for him, but the good thing is that Mahesh has managed to stay in the top-10 of the world doubles rankings due to some good work earlier, especially with Rohan Bopanna.

Leander Paes, partnering Canadian Daniel Nestor, who was Mahesh’s partner at the start of the season, breezed past John Isner and Sam Querrey of the US 6-2, 6-2 in about 51 minutes. He is peaking nicely for the season-ending championship for which he had confirmed his entry with Czech Radek Stepanek by winning the US Open.

The eighth-seeded Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Sania Mirza cruised past Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2 in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the women’s event of the China Open in Beijing.

It was a smooth sailing for the crack combination that had won the Japan Open on Saturday in Tokyo. The 12^th ranked Sania has already told the Tennis Editor of Times of India, Prajwal Hegde, in Beijing that it would be her last tournament of the season.

Meanwhile, in the $1,437,800 Rakuta Japan Open in Tokyo, the fourth-seeded Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France and Rohan Bopanna, who had scared the Bryan twins in the semifinals in Wimbledon, fought past Juan Monaco and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 7-5, 4-6, 10-5. The Indo-French combination will meet alternates Andre Begemann and Martin Emmrich of Germany in the quarterfinals.

For the record, the seventh-ranked Bopanna has a 26-20 win-loss record for the season and has collected $263,602 in prize money so far.

Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan has a bright start

KIGALI (RWANDA), OCT. 2:

Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan warmed up with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over compatriot Medhir Goyal in the $15,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament in Africa.

Mithun Murali and Sagar Ahuja also joined the second-seeded Jeevan in the pre-quarterfinals. Jeevan stayed away from the doubles to focus completely on singles.

The results:

Singles (first round): Gerald Melzer (Aut) bt Kunal Anand 6-4, 6-1; Gilles De Sousa (Fra) bt Neishit Vakil 6-1, 6-1; Mithun Murali bt Yu Takahashi (Jpn) 6-0, 6-1; Lorenzo Papasidero (Ita) bt Rahul Sadhwani 6-0, 6-0; Sagar Ahuja bt Eric Vehovec (Can) 7-6(3), 6-1; Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Medhir Goyal 6-1, 6-0.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Anatole Bizimana and Mathieu Uwizeyimana (Rwa) bt Rahul Sadhwani and Neishit Vakil 6-1, 6-3; Sagar Ahuja and Kunal Anand bt Mark Fynn (Zim) and Hassan Ndayishimiye (Bdi) 6-4, 2-6, 10-7; Sanni Adamu and Henry Atseye (Ngr) bt David Oringa (Uga) and Medhir Goyal 6-1, 6-2; Jannis Linger (Sui) and Mithun Murali bt Olivier Havugimana (Rwa) and Refiloe Molaoa (RSA) 6-1, 6-1.

Saketh Myneni plays only doubles

MESHREF (KUWAIT), OCT. 2:

The Indian challenge without Saketh Myneni proved brittle as Akash Wagh, Siddharth Rawat and Siddharth Rawat lost in the first round of the $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament.

However, Jatin Dahiya pulled through to the second round, while Saketh himself opted to play the doubles, to possibly preserve his knees.

The results:

Singles (first round): Thomas Statzberger (Aut) bt Akash Wagh 1-6, 6-0, 6-4; Patrick Davidson (US) bt Arpit Sharma 6-2, 6-0; Torsten Wietoska (Ger) bt Siddharth Rawat 6-1, 6-4; Jatin Dahiya bt Uros Lukic (Srb) 6-0, 6-2.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Patrick Davidson (US) and Saketh Myneni bt Mohammed Reda (Kuw) and Kento Tagashira (Jpn) 6-2, 6-3;  Matias Castro (Arg) and Akash Wagh bt Hussain Jamal and Abdulaziz Redha (Kuw) 6-2, 2-6, 10-4; Hassan Al Mousa (Kuw) and Punn Bodhidatta (Tha) bt Siddharth Rawat and Arpit Sharma 6-2, 2-6, 10-6.

Ramkumar stumbles out in first round

SABADELL (SPAIN), OCT. 2:

National champion R. Ramkumar was beaten 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-1 by Frederico Ferreira Silva of Portugal in the first round of the $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament on Tuesday.

In doubles, however, there was some success as the second-seeded Ramkumar with David Perez Sanz of Spain beat Manel Perez Esteve and Jaume Santo-Valdiveso of Spain 6-3, 6-1.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran off to a good start

ANTALYA (TURKEY), OCT. 2:

The eighth-seeded Prajnesh Gunneswaran defeated qualifier Alexander Mozgovoy of Russia 6-3, 6-1 in the first round of the $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament on Tuesday.

Like Jeevan, Prajnesh was also not competing in doubles, possibly to preserve his energy and have the flexibility of moving to the next tournament.

Rishika Sunkara seeded to play pre-quarterfinals

SHARM EL SHEIKH (EGYPT), OCT. 2:

Anjana Kompally went down fighting 5-7, 3-6 to Caroline Uebelhoer of Germany in the first round of the $10,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Egypt.

The fourth-seeded Rishika Sunkara had a bye in the first round and was set to play her pre-quarterfinals against qualifier Anabel Ossombi of Ukraine.

The results:

Singles (first round): Caroline Uebelhoer (Ger) bt Anjana Kompally 7-5, 6-3;Chantelle Rigozzi (Aus) bt Shivani Manchanda 6-0, 6-0.