Myneni crosses first hurdle

New York, August 24 

Saketh Myneni moved to the second round of the US Open Qualifiers with a straight-set victory over Albano Olivetti. 

The unseeded Indian dispatched the Frenchman 6-3 7-5 in one hour and 11 minutes.

Myneni saved all eight break points he faced and broke his rival twice in the match. Olivetti struggled to contain his unforced errors as he committed eight double faults to three from Myneni. Myneni needs two more wins to make it to the singles main draw of the last Grand Slam of the season. He next faces American Mitchell Krueger, who knocked out Serbia’s Nikola Milojevic 6-1 3-6 6-3.

Ramkumar Ramanathan, who made his Davis Cup debut against Korea recently, is up against Italian Alessandro Giannessi. 

Paes reaches quarters of Winston-Salem Open 

Winston-Salem (USA): Leander Paes joined hands with Germany’s Andre Begemann, his 108th partner on the ATP circuit, to enter the quarterfinals of the Winston-Salem Open with a straight-set win over Chris Guccione and Andre Sa. The unseeded pair won 6-4 6-4 in the opening round of the $720,940 ATP 250 event. It took 43-year-old Paes and Begemann only 65 minutes to seal the contest, in which they saved five of the six breakpoints and broke their rivals thrice. 

They next take on top seeds Poland’s Lukasz Kubot and Serbia’s Nenad Zimonjic, who struggled past Americans Nicholas Monroe and Donald Young 2-6 7-6(5) 10-7.

Radwanska in quarters of Connecticut Open

New Haven (USA): Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska overcame an early challenge from Jelena Ostapenko to advance to the second round at the Connecticut Open.

Radwanska beat the 19-year-old from Latvia 7-5 6-1. Radwanska took a wild card into the event in search of extra tune-up matches ahead of the US Open, and she was certainly put through her paces against the young Ostapenko. “I was actually really surprised,” Radwanska said after the match, which was the pair’s first encounter. “She’s really a very smart and solid player. She’s very young and she can already do everything on court. She can play a really good game and for sure she’s gonna be good.” — Agencies