CHANDIGARH: He may not possess an explosive game, but Karan Rastogi emphasised that he was tough to beat, as he sprinted past a talented Sanam Singh in the final stretch at the CLTA Complex here on Wednesday.

The top-seeded Rastogi was in a spot of bother midway, but put his best game on display when it counted and won 6-1, 6-7(6), 6-1 in the pre-quarterfinals of the SAIL $10,000 ITF men's Futures tennis tournament.

Not in his best rhythm to challenge a player of Rastogi's calibre, the 19-year-old Sanam revealed glimpses of brilliance, but was overall not match-sharp to pose a serious challenge to his rival, particularly in the decider.

Shaping up well

What heartening was that Sanam was ready to get into his best competitive shape, and with a few more matches he would be a real threat for many players who have found it pretty easy in recent months to represent the country in Davis Cup.

The fighting spirit was very much there, as Sanam toyed with fluctuating fortunes to force the case into the decider, converting his sixth set point.

There was a flicker of hope for the locals when Rastogi faced two breakpoints at 4-1 in the decider, but the champion lad with a commendable work ethic and admirable grit, delivered two successive aces to scotch all hopes.

Rastogi will next meet the National hard-court champion, Purav Raja, who saved two match points in battling his way past the gutsy Navdeep Singh in an encounter lasting three hours and 45 minutes.

The best match of the day was between Prakash Amritraj and Vishnu Vardhan. The fluidity of Prakash on the big points told in the end, even as Vishnu struggled to be his normal self.

The results: Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Karan Rastogi bt Sanam Singh 6-1, 6-7(6), 6-1; Purav Raja bt Navdeep Singh 7-5, 4-6, 7-5; Vijay Kannan bt Stephen Amritraj 6-4, 6-4; Tushar Liberhan bt Robert Searle (GBR) 6-1, 6-4; Prakash Amritraj bt Vishnu Vardhan 4-6, 6-4, 6-4; Sunil Kumar bt Dilshod Sharifi (Tjk) 6-1, 6-1; Aditya Madkekar bt Vinod Sridhar 6-4, 6-3; Punna Vishal bt Vivek Shokeen 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Stephen Amritraj/ Sunil Kumar bt Kiran Nandakumar/ Yannick Nelord 7-6(3), 6-3; Vivek Shokeen/ Sanam Singh bt Robert Searle/ Matthew Smith (GBR) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3; Tushar Liberhan/ Navdeep Singh bt Guilherme Ochiai (Bra)/ Satoshi Yoshino (Jpn) 6-4, 6-3; Sandeep Kirtane/ Purav Raja bt Jonathan Kinsella (GBR)/ Rohan Gajjar 6-2, 6-3.

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