10th January

Picture Credits: IFS Raman Kalika

One sided matches mark the quarter-finals of ITF, Bhopal. Sidharth Rawat with clinical precision was able to work around the little resistance put up by SD Prajwal Dev beating him in straight sets 6-3,6-4. Rawat displayed the full range of shots to make it look like an easy win for him.

The giant killers Luca Castelnuovo (SUI) and Sergey Fomin(UZB) found themselves at the receiving end in the quarter-finals themselves. Eric Vanshelboim (UKR) completely unnerved Luca by matching his back hand top spins shots with his own and getting better of him 6-4,6-4. It was Luca’s turn today to keep losing his temper time and again, and thus compromising his game and allowing Vanshelboim to overcome him in a one-sided match. Eric Vanshelboim (UKR) dominated the match by taking the attack to Luca. Similarly, M Zukhov (RUS) demolished the Uzbek giant killer Sergey Fomin 6-3,6-4 and Alastair Gray (GBR) eliminated 8th seed Egor Agafanov 6-1. 7-6.

Thus all the four singles quarter-final matches turned out to be one sided. The semifinals tomorrow are set to be a fiery affair with one each from India, Ukraine, GBR and Russia moving to semi finals.

In an all Indian doubles semifinals the Dev Javia and Chirag Duhan pair were seen toying with the opponents Rohan Mehra and Maan Kesharwani. Though Rohan and Maan both displayed aggression and on occasions, were seen matching up to Dev and Chirag pair, however, the consistency of Dev Javia and Chirag proved too much for Rohan Mehra and Maan Kesarwani. Dev Javia and Duhan’s attacking game sent the opponents scurrying for cover.

The only match of the day to stretch to three sets, was the second doubles semifinal played between Korean and Indian pairs of Uisung Park and Yeonseok Jeong(KOR) and Vishnu Vardhan and Sai Ganta (IND). It turned out to be the most tense and entertaining match of the day, in which the Indian player won the first set, but the match was later on taken by the Korean pair 6-7, 6-3, 10-7. Tomorrow promises to be an engrossing day for the tennis enthusiasts as the singles semi finals will be played at court no 1 starting 10:00 am. The doubles finals are expected to start around 2:00 PM.