Chennai Open: Mukund Sasikumar enters quarterfinals, mixed day for Indians in doubles

Chennai, Feb 8 (PTI) Wildcard Mukund Sasikumar of India defeated Tunisia's Moez Echargui's 7-6(4) 6-3 to enter the men's singles quarterfinal of the ongoing Chennai Open here on Thursday.

Earlier, Sasikumar had defeated Maks Kasnikowski of Poland in three sets and will now face Dalibor Svrcina of Czech Republic in the last-eight round.

While Sasikumar was the only Indian in action during the day in the singles event, the doubles competition witnessed quite some players of the host nation in the quarterfinals.

The top-seeded pair of N Sriram Balaji and Andre Begemann of Germany were stunned 3-6 4-6 by the German duo of Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner.

Another Indian Arjun Kadhe and his Taiwanese partner Yu Hsiou Hsu crashed out in the quarterfinals, losing to second seeds Toshihide Matsui and Kaito Uesugi of Japan 5-7 3-6.

However, fourth-seeded Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli and Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha defeated Parikshit Somani and Manish Sureshkumar 5-7 6-1 10-7 in the all-Indian contest.

The other Indian pair -- Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan defeated French duo of Dan Added and Ugo Blanchet 4-6 6-4 10-6 to move into the semifinals. PTI AYG SSC SSC