Thailand's twin ATP doubles stars Sonchat and Sanchai Ratiwatana navigated a smoke-filled corridor with wet towels wrapped around their faces to avoid a dangerous hotel fire Monday in Bordeaux, France, where they are competing in an ATP Challenger event.
The Indian challenge ended at the Chennai Open tournament with Somdev Devvarman and his Ukrainian partner Sergiy Stakhovsky losing their doubles quarterfinal match to Thai brothers Sanchal and Sonchat Ratiwatana in straight sets.
In singles, out of action Yuki Bhambri dropped seven places to 129 while Myneni lost three and is ranked 141.
They will take on Thai twins Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana in the doubles final at the Chennai Open.
The dou beat Korea's Hyung-Taik Lee and Yeu-Tzuoo Wang of Taiwan in straight sets.
Enduring a dismal season this year, defending champion Sumit Nagal Monday began his campaign at the USD 150,000 Bengaluru Open with a bang by defeating last year's finalist Briton's Jay Clarke in the opening round.
Vishnu Vardhan joined the Indian Davis Cup team in Chandigarh on Sunday and said the hosts are familiar with the playing style of the New Zealand squad that touched down for the Asia-Oceania tie starting September 14.
Top seed Somdev Devvarman struggled past Ramkumar Ramanathan, who was troubled by cramps, but Yuki Bhambri made a fluent start with a straight sets victory in the US$ 50,000 ATP Challenger event, in Chennai.
They are the Asian counterparts of the Bryan brothers. For the Ratiwatana twins, Sonchat and Sanchai, though the comparisons end right there.
Asian Games gold medallist, Somdev Devvarman combined with South African Rik De Voest to script a come-from-behind win over Dmitry Tursonov of Russia and Chinese Taipei's Jimmy Wang and advance to the semi-final of the men's doubles event at the Singapore ATP Challenger.
A second title of the season eluded Divij Sharan and Purav Raja yet again as they ended runners-up at the Nottingham Challenger after losing the tough summit clash to formidable Thai twin brothers Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana.
Rohan Bopanna and his partner Kristof Vliegen progressed to the doubles quarter-finals of the Atlanta Tennis Championships in USA with a straight set win over Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana.
The fast rising Indian pair of Divij Sharan and Purav Raja came from a set down to win their first title ATP Challenger title of the season as the top seeded Indians tamed Miachel Venus and Sanchai Ratiwatana via Super tie-breaker in the summit clash of the All Japan Indoor Championships, in Kyoto on Saturday.
The top seeded Indian pair of Divij Sharan and Purav Raja reached their first final of the season together after overcoming a fighting combo of Toshihide Matsui and Danai Udomchoke in straight sets in the ATP Kyoto Challenger event on Friday.
Mahesh Bhupathi ended his one-and-a-half-year drought of ATP doubles title by winning the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis.
Thailand's Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana established themselves as one of the teams to look forward to in the season by winning the Chennai Open doubles title on Sunday.
Doubles duo Sonchat and Sanchai Ratiwatana have made headway in top-flight tennis and serving the Thai treat at the 2008 Chennai Open.
Rohan Bopanna and Aisam Qureshi edged out second seeds Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana in the match tie-break to enter the final of the Malaysia Open.
The second seeds were beaten by the unseeded American duo of Scott Lipsky and David Martin at the SAP Open.
A day after being felicitated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his exploits at the Asian Games in Incheon, Saketh Myneni toppled Belgian seventh seed Kimmer Coppejans to move into the quarter-finals of the ATP Indore Open on Wednesday. Myneni, ranked 451, overcame the number 202 Belgian 1-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) in a close to two-hour second round match in the US $50,000 Challenger tournament.
Marat Safin and Mikhail won the doubles to give Russia a 3-0 lead in their Davis Cup World Group playoff tie.
Somdev Devvarman suffered yet another early defeat but Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni continued their impressive run by storming into the singles quarter-finals of the ATP Pune Challenger tournament.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday.'
Saketh Myneni got himself in line for two gold medals by reaching the finals of both men's doubles and mixed doubles events even as other Indian tennis players, including Sania Mirza, clinched three bronze at the Asian Games in Incheon on Sunday.