Srinath, Uppal in last eight

Davis Cupper Prahlad Srinath and wild card Vishal Uppal came up with sterling displays to enter the quarter-finals in the US $10,000 prize-money Rexona Deo ITF men's Futures tennis championships in Chennai on Wednesday.

However, three other Indians -- Rohan Bopanna, Sunil Kumar and Vijay Kannan crashed out of the tournament.

The lone seeded player left in the fray, Briton Mark Hilton, seeded sixth, was upset by Israel's Tomer Suissa 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-1).

In contrast to his Karnataka statemate Bopanna's pathetic display, Srinath rallied brilliantly against hard-hitting qualifier Sonchat Ratiwatana to win 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 after a 135-minute battle.

As he himself admitted, Bopanna struggled to get his first serve in and committed too many unforced errors while going down 5-7, 4-6 to Israel's Meir Deri, another qualifier. It was an even contest in the first set till 5-5 but Deri broke Bopanna in the 11th game and held to win the set 7-5.

In the second set, Bopanna was broken in the third game. He fought on gamely till 4-5, but caved in in the crucial tenth game.

Vishal Uppal trounced Slovakia qualifier Marian Leysek 6-3, 6-3.

Wild card Kannan raised hopes of an upset win over higher ranked Slovak Branislav Sekac, taking the first set easily after dropping just three games. But, the Slovak staged a brilliant comeback with some power packed shots mixed with good volleying to win the next two sets and match 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Kannan was up 3-0 in the second set but Sekac broke the Indian in the fourth and sixth games to go up 4-3. Kannan drew level 4-4, but Sekac broke him again for a 5-4 lead. Surviving three break-points, Kannan held serve to level 5-5. But, Sekac regained the lead at 6-5 after holding serve and broke Kannan again to take the set 7-5.

By the third set, Kannan had run out of steam. He repeatedly lapsed into errors as the Slovak coasted to the set and match.

Former national champion Sunil Kumar was another pathetic sight as he went down to qualifier Mohammed Dakki of Morocco.

In the last pre-quarter-final match, the higher ranked Czech Jakib Hasek prevailed over qualifier Jalal-Chafa Alaoui of Morocco 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.