Indian tennis ace Cincinnati open: Sania Mirza (L) and Ramkumar Ramanathan and her Chinese partner Peng Shuai showcased a splendid performance as they booked their place in the quarter-finals of 2017 Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati following a straight-set victory in the women’s doubles clash here on Thursday.
The fourth-seeded pair looked dominant throughout the match as they went on to post a comfortable 7-5, 6-4 win over the German- Ukraine duo of Julia G’rgesand and Olga Savchuk in a last-16 clash that lasted one and a half hour at the ongoing cincinnati open.
The Indo-German duo of Mirza and Shuai will now cross swords with the Romanian team of Irina-Camelia Begu and Raluca Olaru for a place in the last four.
Ramkumar Ramanathan could not extend his run, falling yet again to American Jared Donaldson. In a second round singles match, the lucky loser Indian suffered a 4-6 6-2 4-6 loss to the local wild card, ranked 60 in the world.
It was second consecutive defeat for Ramkumar against the American, having lost to him in the second round of the Roland Garros Qualifier in 2015.
After Ramkumar’s defeat, India’s interest in the tournament remains in doubles with Rohan Bopanna set to play his second round match with partner Ivan Dodig.
They face the team of Colombia’s Juan Sebastian Cabal and Italian Fabio Fognini, who both are top-25 singles players.
Leander Paes had suffered a first round exit with partner Alexander Zverev, losing a tight match to Spanish pair of Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez.
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