Nagal bows out; doubles top seeds Poonacha-Isaro through to semis in Chennai Open

Former champion Sumit Nagal bowed out of the Chennai Open ATP Challenger with a 6-4 6-7 3-6 loss to Russian Petr Bar Biryukov in the second round here on Thursday. The India No. 1 won the first set against big-serving left-hander Biryukov, ranked No. 305 in the world. Nagal also had three break points in the second set on Biryukov's serve, but failed to convert them. With no breaks of serve, the set went into a tie-break, which Biryukov won before taking a 3-0 lead in the decider. Although Nagal fought back to level the final set at 3-3, Biryukov earned another decisive break in the eighth game and held serve to close out the game in two hours and six minutes. In the longest match of the day, fourth seed Ilia Simakin overcame Australia's Philip Sekulic 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (1) in just under three hours. Simakin will next face Biryukov for a spot in the semi-finals. Earlier in the day, Indian qualifier Sidharth Rawat, ranked No. 715 in the world, was defeated by Maks Kasnikowski, ranked No. 419, in straight sets. The Pole advanced to the last eight with a 6-2, 6-3 win. In the doubles draw, top seeds Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha/Pruchya Isaro advanced to the last four with a 6-4, 6-1 win over wildcard duo Lohithaksha Bathrinath/Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam. They will next face the all-Indian pairing of S.D. Prajwal Dev/Nitin Sinha. The third seeds made it through to the semi-finals with a 4-6, 6-2, 10-8 win over fellow Indians Ishaque Eqbal/Manish Sureshkumar. Second seeds Siddhant Banthia/Saketh Myneni were knocked out 7-5, 6-4 in the last quarter-final of the day by the Indo-British duo of Sasikumar Mukund/Jay Clarke.