TWINS Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana of Thailand and the tandem of Johan Brunstrom of Sweden and Frederik Nielsen of Denmark advanced to the semifinals of the $75,000 Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Challenger Philippine Open 2016 on Thursday at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.
The Ratiwatana brothers squeezed past Croatians Dino Marcan and Nikola Mektic, 6-4, 6-4, while former doubles world No. 22 Brunstrom and 2012 Wimbledon men’s doubles champion Nielsen trounced Dean O’Brien and Ruan Roelofse, 7-5, 6-2. Brunstrom and Nielsen will take on of Maximilian Neuchrist of Austria and Indian Divij Sharan in the semifinals on Friday. Neuchrist and Sharan eliminated David Guez and Go Soeda, 6-2, 6-4, in the quarterfinals meet on Wednesday.
The Ratiwatana twins, on the other hand, will face either Filipino Francis Casey Alcantara and Indonesian Christopher Rungkat or Swiss Marco Chiudinelli and Slovakian Lucas Lacko who played their quarterfinals match late Thursday.
Alcantara and Rungkat entered the quarterfinals after a nail-biting 4-6, 7-6, 10-7 upset of top-seed Ilija Bozaljac of Serbia and Andreas Siljestrom of Sweden on Wednesday.
In singles action, Lacko and Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands forged a quarterfinals showdown. Lacko ousted Federico Gaio 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, while Sijsling eliminated Amir Weintraun, 6-2, 6-2, also on Thursday
Italy’s Gian Naso also advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 7-6 victory over Kimmer Coppejans of Belgium.
Naso will face the winner of the match between second-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Belgium and Yannick Mertens of Russia which was scheduled later on Thursday.
Image credits: Roy Domingo