Antalya Open: Leander Paes-Adil Shamashdin progress to semi-finals; Divij Sharan-Purav Raja ousted

Antalya: Leander Paes and his Canadian partner Adil Shamashdin entered the semi-finals of the ATP 250 Antalya Open while Indian pair of Divij Sharan and Purav Raja lost a hard-fought quarter-final on Wednesday.

The fourth seeded Indo-Canadian brushed aside unseeded Carlos Berlocq of Argentina and Joao Sousa of Portugal in straight sets 6-1 6-2 making it to the last four.

However Raja-Sharan pair gave a tough fight to second seeded Oliver Marach of Austria and Mate Pavic of Croatia losing in super tie-break. The Indian pair lost 6-7 (9-11), 7-6 (7-4), 4-10.

In men’s singles, Ramkumar Ramanathan on Tuesday recorded the biggest win of his career — a stunning straight-set 6-3-6-2 victory over World No 8 Dominic Thiem in the pre-quarter finals.

The unheralded Ramkumar, ranked 222 in the world, brushed aside the Austrian challenge in only 59 minutes to make it to the last eight of the $439,000 prize-money tournament. This was his first-ever victory over a top-10 player in the ATP rankings.