Date:23/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/23/stories/2008052360712300.htm

Sport - Tennis

Harsh, Ashutosh pair in final

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Harsh Mankad and Ashutosh Singh knocked out the second-seeded Adam Feeney of Australia and Purav Raja 6-4, 6-1 in the doubles semifinals of the Challenger tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Thursday.

On another rain affected day, that saw the doubles semifinals being played under inadequate floodlights in the twilight, the all-Indian pair targeted Purav Raja’s serve to sail through.

Harsh and Ashutosh returned with a lot of imagination and accuracy. Purav’s serve was broken in the third game of the first set, and the Indian duo proved too good winning five games in a row, including three breaks of serve, in the climax.

Harsh and Ashutosh will challenge the top-seeded Brendan Evans of the US and Mustafa Ghouse in the final. The Indo-American pair defeated Alexandre Kudryavtsev of Russia and Ilia Marchenko of Ukraine in straight sets.

In the singles quarterfinals, the talented Kudryavtsev pulled past the second-seeded Gilles Muller of Luxembourg in the third set tie-break. He will meet Go Soeda of Japan in the semifinals.

The top-seeded Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei, the champion last week at the same venue, showed his firepower at the crunch as he pipped the fifth-seeded Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, breaking the Pakistani decisively in the 11th game of the third set.

The 93rd ranked Lu will meet the big-serving Guillermo Alcaide of Spain who first beat the third-seeded Kristian Pless of Denmark in the third set of the unfinished quarterfinals earlier in the day before pulling past Thomas Oger of France in another three setter.

The results:

Singles (quarterfinals): Yen-Hsun Lu (Tpe) bt Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (Pak) 5-7, 6-3, 7-5; Guillermo Alcaide (Esp) bt Thomas Oger (Fra) 7-6(2), 4-6, 6-1; Go Soeda (Jpn) bt Ricardo Mello (Bra) 6-4, 3-6, 6-1; Alexandre Kudryavtsev (Rus) bt Gilles Muller (Lux) 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(2); Pre-quarterfinals: Guillermo Alcaide bt Kristian Pless 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-4.

Doubles (semifinals): Brendan Evans (US) and Mustafa Ghouse bt Alexandre Kudryavtsev (Rus) and Ilia Marchenko (Ukr) 7-5, 6-1; Harsh Mankad and Ashutosh Singh bt Adam Feeney (Aus) and Purav Raja 6-4, 6-1.