Tennis Roundup: Vardhan bags 2nd title, Paes loses

Vishnu Vardhan won his second Challenger level title of the season with Japanese partner Toshihide Matsui but four other Indians, including Leander Paes, tumbled out of various ATP events across the globe.

Vardhan and Matsui pipped Russia's Evgeny Karlovskiy and Evgeny Tyurnev 7-6(3), 6-7(5), 10-7 in a tight final of the President's Cup in Astana, Kazakhstan Vardhan and Matsui saved three of the four breakpoints they faced in the summit clash, which lasted one hour and 44 minutes. The win got Vardhan the biggest title triumph of his career.

Vardhan had won Fergana title last month with compatriot N Sriram Balaji and had ended runner-up in Samarkand with Prajnesh Gunneswaran.

Vardhan, ranked 179th, has already won six ITF Futures doubles titles this season.

"It has been an incredible week, it is the biggest title so far of my career after a bad injury lay-off in 2013 and 2014. I am really happy to be back at this level," Vardhan said.

"Last week, me and Matsui lost in the first round of an ITF event, having six match points. But we kept our head high and worked together for a fortnight," he added.

Vardhan credited former national champion Ashutosh Singh, who is now a coach, for helping him with his game.

"Ashutosh helped me, taking his time out and pushing me when I was in Delhi in between my tournaments which kept me motivated," he said adding that his Hyderabad-based coach CV Nagraj and trainer Latheef have also played a crucial role in his progress.

Meanwhile, veteran Paes and his partner Sam Groth made a semi-final exit from the ATP 250 Hall of Fame Open in Newport (USA), following a 6-4, 6-7(6), 9-11 defeat to Pakistan's Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi and America's Rajeev Ram.

Losing the quarterfinal of the same event was the Indian pair of Divij Sharan and Purav Raja. They lost 6-7 (5), 6-7 (4) to the Australian team of Matt Reid John-Patrick Smith in Newport.

In singles, Yuki Bhambri went down fighting in the quarter-finals of Gatineau Challenger in Canada. He suffered a 3-6, 6-4, 4-6 defeat against America's Alexander Sarkissian.

Kyrgios will 'definitely' play in US Open

Nick Kyrgios believes that he'll be ready to take part in the US Open scheduled for August, despite retiring in the first round of Wimbledon due to an injury.

Krygios's Wimbledon hopes were brought to a premature end after he retired injured during the opening round of the major after succumbing to the hip issue which had plagued him in the build-up to the tournament.

The 22-year old is continuing his rehabilitation back home in Australia.

“It’s one of my favourite tournaments, so I’m definitely going to be playing that. I’m working hard at the moment,” said Kyrgios.

"I've been back home, putting my head down, doing all the right things to get healthy."

I'm aiming for Washington in a couple of weeks in the US, so if everything goes well and I keep doing it, there's no reason why I can't be playing healthy in the next couple of weeks."

Swedish Open semi interrupted by man shouting Nazi slogans

The Swedish Open tennis semi-final between Fernando Verdasco and David Ferrer was briefly disrupted on Saturday when a spectator walked on to the court and shouted a Nazi slogan.

Wearing a black T-shirt and tan trousers, the man calmly walked on during the second set before raising his right arm, fist clenched, and shouting "Hell Seger!", a Swedish translation of the Nazi slogan "Sieg Heil".

The umpire stopped play and the man was led away by security guards. Play resumed after a brief interruption.

The disruption occurred with Ferrer leading his fellow Spaniard by one set to love. Verdasco bounced back to win the second set but Ferrer took the decider for a 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-4 victory and will meet Alexandr Dolgopolov in Sunday's final.