Sanam, Yuki seal singles quarterfinal berths; Ankita bow out

Sanam Singh recovered from a sluggish start to move to the men's singles quarterfinals and later combined with Saketh Myneni to seal a place in the men's doubles last-eight also as Indian players continued their dominating show on the tennis courts at the Asian Games here today.

Ranked just inside top-400 at 397, Sanam beat 190th ranked Chung, 7-5 6-1 the third round, which lasted one hour and 24 minutes at Yeorumul Tennis Courts.

Also advancing to the men's singles last-eight was Yuki Bhambri, who defeated Indonesia's Christopher Rungkat 6-3 6-3 in one hour and 30 minutes in his third round contest.

After a break, Sanam along with big-serving Saketh Myneni, seeded fifth, took just 32 minutes to trounce Saudi Arabia's Ammar Alhaqbani and Omar Fahmi Ahmed 6-0 6-1 in the second round.

A similar dominating performance was dished out by fifth seeds Sania Mirza and Prarthana Thombare in the women's doubles second round as they blanked Mongolia's Bolor Enkhbayar and Gotov Dulguunjargal 6-0 6-0 in just 35 minutes.

Sania and Prarthana will now play quarterfinals.
However, Ankita Raina had a disappointing outing as she crashed out of women's singles with a 2-6 6-4 1-6 defeat against fourth seed Japanese Eri Hozumi in the third round, lasting one hour and 55 minutes.

With Ankita's defeat, India's challenge has ended in women's singles. Ankita, though, is still in fray in the mixed doubles with Divij Sharan.

Taking the court first this morning was Sanam, who was trailing 1-4 in the opening set but turned the match on its head by reeling off four games on the trot to take lead.

Sanam stood out with audacious cross court winners. The fighting spirit kept the Chandigarh lad going despite a poor start.

The 190th ranked Chung, who earlier was dominating with his solid serve, felt the heat and started to make a lot of unforced errors. Sanam closed the contest when Chung failed to return a ferocious forehand from the Indian.

One more win would assure Sanam at least a bronze medal.