Chennai Open: Paire, Fabbiano, Ramanathan move into next round

aircel chennai openChennai: Benoit Paire got the better of Lukas Rosol 7-5, 7-5 at the Aircel Chennai Open on Thursday. The third seed secured the victory in one hour, 24 minutes.

Paire, No. 19, will now meet is No. 157 Thomas Fabbiano, who survived 14 aces to upset sixth seed Gilles Muller 6-4, 7-5 in 77 minutes.

Meanwhile, Indian wild card Ramkumar Ramanathan was slated to meet second seed Kevin Anderson, but saw the latter pull out with a left knee injury before their match. Anderson was replaced by lucky loser Alexander Kudryavtsev, ranked No. 164. Ramanathan made the most of his opportunity, moving into the quarter-finals with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win in just under two hours.

His next opponent will be Britain’s Aljaz Bedene, who needed over two hours to complete a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 comeback against Luca Vanni.

In doubles, Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram beat Lukas Rosol and Igor Zelenay 7-5, 7-6(5).

Meanwhile, second seeds Marcel Granollers and Leander Paes were forced to withdraw against Austin Krajicek and Benoit Paire due to Granollers’ illness, giving the American-French duo a free pass into the final four.