The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Purav Raja in semifinals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 18, 2006

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Sport - Tennis

Purav Raja in semifinals

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Purav Raja asserted his growing stature as a professional as he dismissed third seed Navdeep Singh 6-0, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the ITF Satellite tennis circuit second leg at the DLTA Complex here on Thursday.

The 20-year-old Mumbai lad, who is being coached by the former Asian junior champion and Arjuna Awardee Sandeep Kirtane, outplayed the Dubai-based Navdeep.

Purav will next meet Aqeel Khan of Pakistan who proved too good for Virali Murugesan Ranjeet.

Ravishankar advances

The second seed Pathanjali Ravishankar was the other Indian to make the semifinals, and he did so at the expense of Stephen Amritraj of the U.S. In a match in which there was only one break of serve, in the second game of the second set, Ravishankar dominated the first set tie-break by winning six points in a row and won the points that mattered in the second.

The Chennai lad will take on Yuri Bezeruk of Australia who eased past Nima Roshan of the U.S.

The results: (Indians unless specified): Singles (quarterfinals): Aqeel Khan (Pak) bt V.M. Ranjeet 6-3, 6-2; Purav Raja bt Navdeep Singh 6-0, 6-4; Yuri Bezeruk (Aus) bt Nima Roshan (U.S.) 6-3, 6-3; Pathanjali Ravishankar bt Stephen Amritraj (U.S.) 7-6(2), 6-4.

Doubles (semifinals): Vijay Kannan/ Ashutosh Singh bt Jaco Mathew/ Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-1, 6-3; Divij Sharan/ Navdeep Singh bt Mustafa Ghouse/ Pathanjali Ravishankar 7-6(4), 6-0.

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