Sunil Kumar, Uppal in last four
Promising junior Sunil Kumar Sipaeya and former Davis Cupper Vishal Uppal continued their giant-killing
runs to oust seeded players and romp into the men's semi-finals in the Indian Oil Servo Senior grasscourt tennis
championship in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Sipayea, who upset top seed Rohan Bopanna in the
pre-quarters on Tuesday, came back after losing the first set
to put it across seventh seed Kamala Kannan 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 after an 118-minute battle at the Calcutta South Club lawns.
Having accounted for fifth seeded Rishi Sridhar in the
round of 16, Uppal made short work of third ranked Vinod
Sridhar, winning 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 to set up a semi-final date with Sipaeya.
Sixth seed Manoj Mahadeven of Tamil Nadu also caused an
upset, getting the better of fourth seed Tamil Nadu's Vijay
Kannan 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) in a tough 125-minute duel.
In the semi-finals, Mahadeven will take on second seed
Nitin Kirtane, who had to toil before prevailing over
eight ranked Punna Vishal of Karnataka 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.
In the ladies singles, top seed Radhika Tulpule of Maharashtra faced stiff resistance from fifth seed
Shruti Dhawan of Chandigarh before winning 6-1, 2-6, 6-3
while second seed and Tulpule's statemate Sonal Phadke made
short work of seventh seed Karnataka's Archana Vankatraman 6-4,
6-2 to move into the last four.
In other quarter finals, third seed Sai Jayalakshmi
stormed past Radhika Mandke 6-2, 6-0 while fourth seed Sheetal Goutham of Karnataka beat Maharashra's Liza Pereira 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.
The semi-finals will be played on March 29.
Tuesday's report
Top seed Bopanna falls by the wayside
