Pune, Nov 13 (PTI) Led by Prajnesh Gunneswaran, India's top singles players progressed to the pre-quarterfinals with contrasting victories, but Saketh Myneni was knocked out of the KPIT-MSTLA Challenger after being in a position of strength here on Wednesday.

India number one and top seed Prajnesh needed just 49 minutes to demolish Chandril Sood 6-1 6-3 while third seed Sumit Nagal quelled a late challenge from Aryan Goveas to emerge a 6-3 7-6(5) winner in one hour and 16 minutes.

Sixth seed Ramkumar Ramnathan hammered eight aces on his way to a 6-3 6-4 win over Greek player Markos Kalovelonis.

Eighth seed Sasikumar Mukund didn't have to break much sweat in getting past Japanese doubles specialist Toshide Matsui 6-2 6-3 in his second round match at the Balewadi Sports Complex.

With 20-year-old Manish Sureshkumar already into the last 16, there are now five Indians in contention for quarterfinal places on Thursday.

Myneni was leading 6-3 4-2 in his second round clash against Turkish Ergi Kirkin but the 10th seeded Indian could not keep the momentum going to eventually lose 6-3 5-7 4-6.

Fifteenth seed Brydan Klein of Britian also came back from being down 2-4 in the third set to end the challenge of Siddarth Rawat, winning 6-1 3-6 6-4 in little over two hours.

Wild card Dhruv Sunish gave a good account of himself by taking 13th seed Ivan Nedelko to the ropes but the experienced 33-year-old Russian, ranked 617 places above the Indian, prevailed 6-3 5-7 6-2.

Seventh seeded Roberto Ortega-Olmedo of Spain was too good for young Indian Anniruddha Chandrasekar, who lost 3-6 2-6.

Turkey's 12th seed Cem Ilkel ended the lucky run of Kaza Vinayak Sharma with a 6-2 6-1 scoreline.

Dutchman Tim Van Rijthoven ended the challenge of Indian qualifier Dalwinder Singh 6-3 6-1 in less than an hour.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)