Asiad 2018: Tennis stars ensure two medals

India ensured two medals from tennis courts with the men's doubles team of Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan and womens' singles player Ankita Raina entering the semi-finals of their respective categories at the 18th Asian Games here on Wednesday.

Bopanna and Sharan defeated Hsieh Chengpeng and Yang Tsung-Hua of Chinese Taipei 6-3, 5-7, 10-1 in a hard fought quaretr-final encounter.

The Indians will take on K. Uesugi and S. Shimabukuro of Japan in the semi-finals.

The Japanese pair had beaten Gong Maoxin and Ze Zhang of China 4-6, 6-2, 10-2 in another bitterly fought quarter-final.

In women's singles, Ankita got past Hong Kong's Eudice Wong Chong 6-4, 6-1 to enter the last-four stage.

Ankita and Bopanna advanced to the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles category with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Chong and Wong Chun Hun of Hong Kong.

They will meet C.B. Rungkat and A. Sutjiadi of Indonesia in the last eight stage.

Ankita, however, lost in the women's doubles quarter-finals. She and her partner Prarthana Thombare lost 1-6, 3-6 to the Kazakhstan pair of Gozal Ainitdinova and Anna Danilina.

In men's singles, Ramkumar Ramanathan gave a spirited fight before losing 6-3, 4-6, 3-6 to Karimov Jurabek of Uzbekistan in the pre-quarterfinals.

The men's doubles team of Sumit Nagal and Ramanathan faltered in the quarter-finals, going down 7-5, 4-6, 2-10 to Kazakhstan's Aleksandr Bublik and Denis Yevseyev. - IANS