Ramkumar, Paes crash out; Sania up

India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan bowed out of the Cincinnati Masters on Wednesday after losing a tight Round of 32 clash to USA’s Jared Donaldson. On a high after beating Christopher Eubanks 6-7, 6-1, 6-4 in the previous round, Ramanathan put up a valiant fight against Donaldson, but eventually came up short.

Donaldson won the first set 6-4 to grab the advantage early in the match. Ramanathan, however, fought back immediately, breaking Donaldson twice in the second set to win it 6-2.

The American eventually prevailed in the deciding match to seal a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 win and book a place in the pre-quarterfinals.

Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza 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 straightset 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 GermanUkraine duo of Julia Gorgesand and Olga Savchuk in a last-16 clash that lasted one and a half hour. 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.

In the men’s doubles event, Leander Paes and his men’s doubles partner Alexander Zverev Jr. suffered a major blow as he crashed out of the U.S. Open warm-up tournament after going down against Spain’s Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez .

Paes and Zverev failed to capitalise on their comfortable firstset win and slumped to a 2-6, 7-6 (7-2), 10-6 defeat against the Spanish duo in the opening round encounter.

IN THE MEN’S DOUBLES, LEANDER PAES AND ALEXANDER ZVEREV JR. CRASHED OUT OF THE U.S. OPEN WARMUP TOURNAMENT.