Ramanathan-Myneni in Chennai Open final

Defending champions Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni entered the doubles final of the Chennai Open ATP Challenger with a hard-fought win over top seeds Ray Ho and Matthew Christopher Romios here on Friday.

The third seeded Indian pair registered a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (8) victory over their rivals from Taipei and Australia.

They will face unseeded Japanese duo of Shintaro Mochizuki and Kaito Uesugi, a 4-6, 6-4, 10-6 winners over second seeded Indians Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Vijay Sundar Prashanth, for the title.

Earlier, Ramkumar and Saketh saved a set point in the second set tie-break before emerging winners on their third match point.

In the singles, top seed Billy Harris of Britain advanced to the last four with a 6-3, 7-6 (6) win over Kazakhstan’s Timofey Skatov.

The Kazakh player put up a brave fight in the second set, saving match points in the 10th and 12th games and even held a set point before Harris came through in just over two-and-a-half hours.

Harris will meet Sweden’s Elias Ymer on Saturday. The Swede scored a comfortable 6-2 6-3 win over Japan’s Rio Noguchi.

Czech Dalibor Svrcina and France’s Kyrian Jacquet will face off in the other semi-final.

Svrcina had an easy passage into the semifinals with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Ukraine’s Oleksandr Ovcharenko.

Jacquet came from 2-4 down in the final set and saved a match point against fifth seed Shintaro Mochizuki before eventually scoring a 6-1 4-6, 7-6 win.