Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan brought much needed cheer to the Indian tennis camp as they ensured a doubles medal by reaching the semifinals, but the hopes of a singles medal were dashed after Sumit Nagal and Ankita Raina exited in the quarterfinal stage.
Myneni, who has a doubles silver and mixed doubles gold from the 2014 Asiad, and Ramkumar put down a spirited challenge from home favourites Zhizhen Zhang and Wu Yibing 6-1, 7-6 (8) in front of a raucous crowd in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, the Indian second seeds will take on South Korea's Soonwoo Kwon and Seongchan Hong.
India have the opportunity to clinch another medal as Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosale sailed past Japan's Ayano Shimizu and Shinji Hazawa 6-3, 6-4 into the quarterfinals of mixed doubles. Entering the last-four assures a player/team of a bronze.
It proved to be a tough day at the office for the Indians.
Nagal went down to Zhang, the top seed and World No. 60, 7-6 (3), 1-6, 2-6 while Raina succumbed to Japan's Haruka Kaji 6-3, 4-6, 4-6 in 2 hours 53 minutes. Raina, who won singles bronze in Indonesia 2018, went down in the mixed doubles as well.
India's women's No. 1 Raina was up 2-0 in the final set before Kaji won the following five games to lead 5-2. Raina then staged a fightback to make it 4-5, saving a match point on the way.
But Kaji held her nerve the second time she served for the match to book her place in the last-four. Returning to the court barely an hour later, Raina and Yuki Bhambri, seeded No. 1, suffered a 4-6, 6-4, 8-10 loss against Alex Eala and Francis Casey Alcantra in the mixed doubles third-round.
"Obviously, playing against the World No. 60 is never an easy match," Zeeshan Ali, India's men's coach, said, "Nagal had a very good first set, he had Zhang on the ropes. And then in the first game of the second set he had the biggest opportunity when Zhang was down 15-40 on his serve.
