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Ghareeb-Marchenko pair in final

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Mohammed Al Ghareeb and Ilia Marchenko of Ukraine pipped Rohan Gajjar and Purav Raja 3-6, 7-6(6), 10-7 in the doubles semifinals of the SAIL Open Challenger tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Thursday.

It was his third match of the day, but Ghareeb had enough reserves of energy, intensity and as much hunger for success smacking a couple of overheads and a telling volley to make the difference in a tough contest that spanned an hour and 38 minutes.

The talented Kuwaiti had won the doubles quarterfinals earlier in the day, after having matched the fourth-seeded Go Soeda of Japan in a gripping singles quarterfinals. Ghareeb, who had justified his wild card by beating Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi in the second round, got broken decisively in the 11th games of both the sets in the singles, but proved too good in the doubles.

The Indian pair let the match get out of hand after having called the shots in the first set, when it broke Marchenko decisively in the fourth game. After an early exchange of breaks in the second set, the contest hotted up in the tie-break.

Volley errors

Raja and Gajjar fought their way back from facing two setpoints in the second set tie-break, but uncharacteristic volleying errors stretched the match into the super tie-break.

The other doubles semifinals, featuring Prakash Amritraj and Rajeev Ram against Colin Ebelthite and Samuel Groth had to be postponed for Friday, as both the Aussies had already played two matches in the day and exercised the option of not playing the third, as per the rules.

The results: Singles (quarterfinals): Yen-Hsun Lu (Tpe) bt Colin Ebelthite (Aus) 6-1, 6-4; Go Soeda (Jpn) bt Mohammed Al Ghareeb (Kuw) 7-5, 7-5; Kristian Pless (Den) bt Alex Bogdanovic (GBR) 2-6, 7-5, 7-5; Brendan Evans (US) bt Samuel Groth (Aus) 7-6(5), 6-4.

Doubles (semifinals): Mohammed Al Ghareeb (Kuw) and Ilia Marchenko (Ukr) bt Rohan Gajjar and Purav Raja 3-6, 7-6(6), 10-7; Quarterfinals: Colin Ebelthite and Samuel Groth (Aus) bt Ricardo Mello (Bra) and Gilles Muller (Lux) 7-5, 6-3; Mohammed Al Ghareeb and Ilia Marchenko bt Guillermo Alcaide (Esp) and Alex Satschko (Ger) 6-1, 7-6(3).

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