Ashutosh shocks third seed; enters ITF tournament quarters (Lead)

India's Ashutosh Singh upset third seed Hyun-woo Nam of South Korea 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 while Yuki Bhambri dispatched qualifier Ashwin Vijayragavan 6-1, 6-2 to enter the quarter-finals of the $15,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament at DLTA here Wednesday.

Second-seeded Vishnu Vardhan, too, advanced to the quarter-final with a 6-4, 6-3 win over qualifier Vijay Kannan and so did fifth-seeded Divij Sharan who survived the first set onslaught from Purav Raja 7-6(1), 6-2 to set up a next round meeting with Yuki.

Ashutosh, who made a first round exit in both the ITF tournaments here in April-May, fought hard, bouncing back from a first set loss.

The 26-year-old from Delhi served better in the second set and with a break in the fourth game off Nam's serve made it a set each. The Korean ran out of steam in the decider and struggled with his movement.

Ashutosh broke him in the first and the fifth games to win the decider and the match in two hours and 15 minutes. He next plays national champion and seventh seed Ranjeet Virali Murugesan who swept aside P.C. Vignesh 6-3, 6-2.

Top seed Kento Takeuchi of Japan encountered a strong fight from Vivek Shokeen, before winning 7-6(5), 6-4. Both players served solid and hit powerful groundstrokes in the match that saw long drawn out rallies. The first set went into the tie-breaker without a service break where Shokeen led 3-0, but then he ran out of steam.

A confident Takeuchi then played freely in the second set and showed good court-craft, breaking an erratic Shokeen in the fifth and seventh game.

The Japanese was serving for the match in the eighth game, but the Indian broke back and then held his serve to reduce the deficit. However, Shokeen could not stop Takeuchi from walking away with the set and the match in next game.

Later on the same court, fourth seed Yuki toyed with qualifier Vijayragavan to win in an hour and five minutes. Ashwin struggled with his serve and rhythm, straightaway losing five game before holding his serve for the first time in the sixth game. Yuki then served out the set.

The second set brought no reversal of fortunes for Ashwin as Yuki continue to dominate for a 4-1 lead. Ashwin broke Yuki in the sixth game but the Delhi boy immediately broke back and then held his serve to take the set and the match.

In the other pre-quarter-final match, sixth-seeded Rohan Gajjar dispatched Vikram Reddy 6-0, 6-2, while eighth-seeded Rupesh Roy defeated wildcard Ronak Manuja 6-4, 6-2 to run into Vardhan in the next round.

In the doubles, the top seeded pair of Gajjar and Raja reached the semi-final beating Nitten Kirrtane and Ronak 3-6, 6-4, 13-11. They now face third-seed pair of Shokeen and Ashutosh who sent the wildcard pair of Kannan and German David Baxendine packing 6-4, 6-1.

The second seeded pair of Vardhan and Sharan also entered the last four stage outclassing Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy and V. Peranamallur-Chandrasekha 6-1, 6-3. They next play Vijayant Malik and Navdeep Singh who shocked fourth seeds N. Prashanth and Mithun Murli 6-4, 4-6 (11-9)

Last updated on Jul 1^st, 2009 at 18:56 pm IST--IANS