Yuki advances to quarters, Saketh ousted

Yuki Bhambri fought off early resistance from Laurynas Grigelis to move to the singles quarterfinals of the ATP Karshi Challenger even as Saketh Myneni was ousted after a second-round defeat here on Wednesday.

Eighth seed Yuki beat his unseeded Lithuanian opponent 7-6 (2) 6-1 in the second round of the USD 50,000 hard court tournament.

In an hour and 19 minute contest, Yuki saved seven of the eight breakpoints he faced and that was key in his win.

He lost his serve only once in the tight opening set, in which he prevailed in the tie-breaker. The second set was one-way traffic with Yuki breaking his rival twice. Yuki had beaten Grigelis at the last year’s US Open qualifers too.

The 22-year-old Indian next faces Russian top seed and world number 93 Teymuraz Gabashvili. However, Saketh bowed out after suffering a 6-7(12) 2-6 defeat against third seed Spaniard Adrian Menendez-Maceiras in one hour and 33 minutes. Later in the day, Yuki and Menendez-Maceiras reached the doubles semi-finals with a shock 3-6 6-4 10-7 win over third seed Indian pair of Myneni and Divij Sharan.