Bopanna in semis

Young Indian Rohan Bopanna moved into the semi-finals of the Berri Australian Unity International F5 Futures event, being played at Berri, Australia, on Friday.

The Indian, ranked 643 on the ATP, defeated Australia's number two junior from Sydney, Ryan Henry 7-6(4), 6-3 in the quarter-final match.

The first set tiebreak was crucial and the 21-one-year-old from Bangalore lifted his game to hit winners on the crucial points. Bopanna's experience on grass left the Australian bemused.

Henry had an early service break in the first set, when he led 3-0, but the big-hitting Indian played too well in the crucial stages.

Bopanna will face seventh seed David McNamara from Melbourne in the semi-final on Saturday. McNamara defeated South Australian Andrew Derer 6-3, 7-5 to enter the semis.

In the other semi-final match, eight seed Victorian Joe Sirianni will take on the top seed Jaymon Crabb of Australia.

Sirianni shocked fellow-countryman, third seed Dejan Petrovic in straight sets 6-3, 6-2, while Jaymon Crabb easily overcame Bulgarian Todor Enev 6-3, 6-2 in the quarter-finals.

On Thursday, the Indian had an upset win over second seed Peter Luczak of Australia 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 in the second round.

Bopanna's experience on the grass prompted him to play in the two tournaments in Australia. He will also be playing at the Barmera event next week.

In another tournament, Mustafa Ghouse stormed into the quarter-finals of the $10,000 ITF F1 Futures tennis tournament in Ha Noi, Vietnam.

Ghouse defeated Robert Krause of South Africa 6-2, 6-2 in the second round.

He now will face Toshihide Matsui of Japan in the quarter-finals. Matsui shocked fourth seed Lior Dahan of Israel 7-6(2), 6-1 to move into the quarter-finals.

In the other quarter-finals matches, top seed Aisam Qureshi of Pakistan will face Johan du Randt of South Africa; Seung-Hun Lee of Korea will take on Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan and sixth seed James Auckland of Great Britain will face Wei-Jen Cheng of Taiwan.

Meanwhile, Manisha Malhotra and Leanne Baker of New Zealand entered the quarter-finals at the $25,000 Nuriootpa Australian Unity International event being played at Nurioopta, South Australia.

Third seeded Malhotra and Baker defeated Yulia Beygelzimer of Ukraine and Anouk Sterk of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-3 in the first round match.

The duo now will face the wildcard Australian pair of Catherine Barclay and Christina Wheeler. Barclay and Wheeler defeated qualifiers Yoon-Jeong Cho of Korea and Saori Obata of Japan 6-4, 6-2 in their first round match.

Earlier reports:
Bopanna in quarter-finals
Bhupathi, Ghouse for Vietnam Futures