Maharashtra Open: Sriram Balaji, Vishnu Vardhan exit in doubles semis

Pune (Maharashtra) [India], February 4 : India's N Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan suffered defeat against the duo of Luke Saville and John-Patrick Smith in the doubles semi-finals of the 2022 Maharashtra open here at the Balewadi Stadium on Friday.
The Indian duo, which made a cut into the main draw as an alternate pair, tried making a comeback into the second set, but the top-seeded Australian pair denied them any chance before securing a 6-2, 6-4 win.
Earlier in the afternoon, Poland's Kamil Majchrzak entered into the singles semi-finals, upsetting second seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy in a thrilling three-setter.
The unseeded Polish player beat Musetti 6-2, 6-7(7-5), 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the fourth edition of South Asia's only ATP-250 event, which is being organised by the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association, and will conclude on Sunday.
The 26-year-old Majchrzak started the match confidently against World No. 66 Musetti and convincingly pocketed the first set.
But Musetti re-energised his batteries and got his rhythm back in the second set, which witnessed an intense battle as it went into a tie-breaker where the Italian rising star came out on top and levelled the scores, taking the match into the decider.
When it seemed the 19-year-old Musetti, the youngest player to break into the Top-100, would make a comeback into the contest, World No. 95 Majchrzak found his mojo back and put up a strong show to seal the set as well as the match.
Majchrzak will now face Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland in the semi-finals on Saturday.
Ruusuvuori sent defending champion Jiri Vesely packing with a 6-3, 6-4 win in another quarter-finals contest, played later in the day.
The 22-year-old Ruusuvuori, who kickstarted his campaign by defeating last edition's runner-up Egor Gerasimov, extended his brilliant run in the tournament as he took just one hour and 17 minutes to complete the straight sets victory over Vesely without breaking a sweat.