Yuki in quarterfinals of ITF tournament

Published>Wed, May 12 10 06:37 PM

New Delhi, May 12 (IANS) Second seed Yuki Bhambri of India stormed into the quarterfinals of the $15,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament demolishing China's Wan Gao 6-3, 6-1 at the DLTA complex here Wednesday.

Yuki along with third-seeded Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan and seventh-seeded Karan Rastogi were the only surviving Indians in the singles draw after the second round.

Ranjeet showed the door to Chinese Peng Gao 6-4, 6-2 while Rastogi sent compatriot Vijayant Malik packing 6-3, 6-3.

Ranjeet now faces fifth-seeded Thai Kittiphong Wachiramanowong who dispatched India's lucky loser Akash Wagh 6-2, 6-4 in the second round. Rastogi, the finalist at Kolkata ITF, plays Yuki Thursday.

The 17-year-old Yuki, who reached the semifinals at Kolkata last week, is in good touch. The searing May heat only prompted a quick finish from him and he needed just 55 minutes to close the match against an erring Gao.

Gao was only good in patches. He struggled with his first serve and his errors grew with the match. Yuki, on the other hand, served with purpose and sent down six rocketing aces in the match.

The Delhi teenager was fluent with his groundstrokes on the slow newly-laid surface here and was soon up a set after breaking Gao in the fifth and the ninth game. He then ran through the second set with Gao managing to hold his serve only in the first game.

In the other singles matches, top seed Rik De Voest of South Africa faced little challenge from China's Xin-Yuan Yu, winning 6-1, 6-2. He next plays sixth seed and the winner of Kolkata ITF tournament last week Murad Inoyatov of Uzbekistan. Inoyatov dispatched Thailand's Weerapat Doakmaiklee 6-4, 6-2.

India's Yannick Nelord, who created a flutter after taking out eighth seed Hsin-Han Lee on the opening day, went down fighting 6-7(4), 4-6 to Chinese Taipei's Liang-Chi Huang.

Huang next plays China's Yu Chang who registered an upset win over fourth-seeded Rohan Gajjar of India in the first round Tuesday. Chang defeated compatriot Bowen Ouyang 6-1, 6-3.

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