Sport - Tennis

Yuki Bhambri gets past Gajjar

NEW DELHI: With his weapons misfiring, Yuki Bhambri still found a way to win against former junior national champion Rohan Gajjar, as he raced to a 6-4, 6-4 victory in an hour and 18 minutes in the quarterfinals of the BHEL $15,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Thursday.

The 16-year-old Yuki started on the wrong foot as he got broken in the second game, following two double faults at 30-30. In fact, he struggled with his first serves most of the time.

Yet, Yuki had the drive to capitalise on the setback and pull himself up for some entertaining stroke play.

Gajjar played well at the start, but couldn’t sustain the momentum.

Yuki will play the Japanese qualifier Masato Hatanaka who showed the door to the seventh-seeded Sean Thornley of Britain.

It was a fruitful day for the Indian camp, as Vishnu Vardhan also advanced to the semifinal beating the third-seeded Goran Tosic of Montenegro, 6-2, 7-5.

Owing to the loss of focus, the tall and strong Tosic was forced into a point of no return in the match although he did make a fight of it in the second set. Vishnu will next meet top-seeded Raven Klaasen of South Africa.

In the doubles category, the top-seeded pair of Gajjar and Purav Raja lost in the semifinal, while the other Indian pair of Sriram Balaji and Ashutosh Singh made it to the final beating Jiri Krkoska and Tosic in a three-setter 6-0, 3-6,6-2.

The results:

Singles (quarterfinals): Raven Klaasen (RSA) bt Adam El Mihdawy (US) 6-4, 7-6(4); Vishnu Vardhan bt Goran Tosic (Mne) 6-2, 7-5; Yuki Bhambri bt Rohan Gajjar 6-4, 6-4; Masato Hatanaka (Jpn) bt Sean Thornley (GBR) 7-6(6), 6-1.

Doubles (semifinals): Yuichi Ito (Jpn) and Raven Klaasen (RSA) bt Rohan Gajjar and Purav Raja (Ind) 6-3, 7-6(4); Sriram Balaji and Ashutosh Singh (Ind) bt Jiri Krkoska (Cze) and Goran Tosic (Mne) 6-0, 3-6, 6-2.

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