Jinan (China), Sep 4 (PTI) Top seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran progressed to the pre-quarterfinals of the Jinan Open with a straight-set win over Japanese qualifier Renta Tokuda, here on Wednesday.

Playing his first tournament after losing the US Open first round, the left-handed Indian raced to a 6-2 6-2 win in the second round of the USD 162480 hard court ATP Challenger tournament.

Prajnesh broke his rival four times and saved both the breakpoints he faced in the 63-minute contest.

In the doubles, fourth-seeded Indian pair of Saketh Myneni and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan overcame Japan's Shintaro Imai and Toshihide Matsui 6-4 6-3 in their opening round.

It would have been an all-Indian quarterfinal but Hiroki Moriya and Goncalo Oliveira knocked out N Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan 3-6 7-6(2) 10-7 in the other first round match in the top-half of the draw.

Now Myneni and Nedunchezhiyan will take on Moriya and Oliveira.

Another Indian in the fray is Divij Sharan, who along with his top-seeded partner Mathew Ebden had prevailed 6-2 6-7(6) 11-9 over Steven Diez and Enrique Lopez Perez on Tuesday.

Sasi Kumar Mukund, who had reached the final last week in Baotou, had made a first round exit with a 3-6 3-6 defeat against Shuichi Sekiguchi.

(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)