The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Ashutosh Singh enters semifinals

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Friday, Oct 19, 2007
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Sport - Tennis

Ashutosh Singh enters semifinals

Special Correspondent

Bellary: Ashutosh Singh stretched his dream run in the $15,000 Bellary Open ITF Futures men’s tennis championship by storming into the semifinals, brushing aside wild card Rupesh Roy 6-4, 6-3 here on Thursday.

It was Ashutosh’s best-ever performance of the season after his triumph in the National hard court championship.

Playing his typically strong net game, Ashutosh made short work of his 20-year-old rival, who failed to live up to his early promise.

In the first set Rupesh broke Ashutosh in the second game and the latter neutralised it in the third game with a sizzling forehand winner. Ashutosh did face some problems in the next few games, with Rupesh keeping the pressure with his groundstrokes, but he seized his chance in the ninth game after Rupesh double faulted to concede a break point (30-40). Though he managed to pull back and made it deuce, Rupesh slammed a forehand wide and later lobbed over the baseline to drop the game.

Anxious moments

Serving for the set, Ashutosh did have some anxious moments as he was down 15-40, muffing up a backhand volley and later committing a double fault. But he neutralised those lapses with three solid first serves and had Rupesh netting a backhand volley to grab the set.

Ashutosh kept the charge and cracked his rival again in the ninth game to wrap up the set and match at 6-3. Ashutosh will meet third seed Rainer Etzinger of Austria, who beat fifth seed Dekel Valtzer of Israel 7-5, 6-3.

The results (all Indians unless specified; prefix denotes seedings):

Singles: Quarterfinals: Phillipp Oswald (Aut) bt Darko Madjarovski (Srb) 6-4, 7-6(2); Ashutosh Singh bt Rupesh Roy 6-4, 6-3; 3-Rainer Etiznger (Aut) bt Dekel Valtzer (Isr) 7-5, 6-3; Ivan Cerovic (Cro) bt Robert Belak (Srb) 6-3, 6-0.

Second round: Rupesh bt Adrian Vasile Gavrila (Rou) 5-7, 7-5, 6-3; Ashutosh bt Vijayant Malik 6-2, 6-4; Etzinger bt Vivek Shokeen 6-2, 6-0; Valtzer bt Ivan Anikanov (Ukr) 6-3, 6-1; Cerovic bt Purav Raj 6-2, 6-3; Oswald bt Teodor Craciun (Rou) 7-5, 6-3; Madjarovski bt Sunil Kumar Sipaeya 4-6, 6-3, 6-2; Belak bt Shivang Mishra 7-6(2), 6-4.

Doubles: Semifinals: Vivek/ Ashutosh bt Alexey Kedryuk (Kaz)/ Vijay Kannan 6-7(7), 6-2, 7-5; Rainer/ Oswald bt Vijay Sundar Prashanth/ Ranjeet V. Murugesan 6-3, 6-7(5), 10-6 (super tie-break).

Quarterfinals: Kedryuk/ Vijay bt Rohan Gajjar/ Rupesh 7-6(6), 6-3; Prashanth/ Murugesan bt Cervenak/ M. Semjan (Svk) 3-6, 6-3, 10-5; Vivek/ Ashutosh bt Craciun/ Gavrila (Rou) 6-3, 6-1.

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