Bhupathi in quarters

Indian doubles ace Mahesh Bhupathi entered the quarter-finals of the $10,000 ITF F1 Futures tennis tournament in Pattaya, Thailand, on Thursday.

The Indian, a wildcard entrant at the event, won a second successive three-setter to defeat Robert Krause of South Africa 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

Earlier, the Indian had defeated qualifier Matthieu Amgwerd of Switzerland 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) in the first round.

Mahesh took the first set comfortably, but the South African came back strongly in the second and broke the Indian to establish parity. The Indian doubles ace, who is trying to lift is singles ranking, won the third set without any further problems.

He now will face Dong-Hyung Kim of Korea in the quarter-finals. Kim defeated wildcard Attapol Rithiwatanapong of Thailand 7-6(4) 2-1 (ret.) in his second round match.

In the other second matches, Indonesian qualifier Febi Widhiyanto upset South African third seed Rik de Voest 6-1, 7-6 (4) and another Indonesian, Peter Handoyo, defeated fourth seed Benjamin Cassaigne from France 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2.

In the quarter-finals, Peter Handoyo will face seventh seed Lior Dahan of Isreal; fifth seed Yeu-Tzuoo Wang of Taiwan will take on Luke Bourgeois of Australia and eighth seed Seung-Hun Lee of Korea will face Indonesian qualifier Febi Widhiyanto.

Earlier report:
Bhupathi makes winning singles return