Talented youngsters Harsh Mankad and Rohan Bopanna carved out facile victories on Thursday to set up an interesting semi-final clash in the $10,000 ITF Futures men's tournament, in Delhi.
In the quarter-finals, Mankad avenged last week's semi-final loss at Lucknow, defeating Bulgarian seventh seed Todor Enev 6-4, 6-2 while Bopanna sailed through with a comfortable 6-3, 6-3 win over Russian qualifier Pavel Lobanov.
The Mankad-Bopanna contest will have added interest as it will be played on the eve of the team selection for India's February 7-9 Davis Cup tie against Japan.
The other semi-final will be an all-Russian affair between Vadim Davletshin and second seed Dmitri Vlasov.
Davletshin accounted for Britain's Naim Lalji 6-2, 6-2 while Vlasov, ranked 305, ousted an injury-troubled Sunil Kumar Sipaeya 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 in an hour and 25 minutes.
After trading breaks in the first two games, Sipaeya failed to convert two break-points in the seventh game of the first set. Vlasov then handed back the favour by letting the Indian off the hook twice in the 10th and 12th games, pushing the set into the tie-breaker.
The Russian then gave vent to his frustration by throwing his racket and was promptly given a code violation.
Again, Sipaeya went up 3-0 before Vlasov showed nerves of steel to win five consecutive points. Sipaeya averted a set point but conceded the second when he put a backhand into the net.
From there on, Sipaeya seemed to feel the growing pain on his serving shoulder. Vlasov though displayed the typical Russian ruthlessness hitting repeatedly to the southpaw's backhand and went on to wrap up the match.
Mankad had fought a three-hour duel against Enev at Lucknow on grass in a losing semi-final but today the
conditions were in his favour.
"That day I did not even have proper shoes and was slipping down. Here I think the bounce on hard courts helped me and the balls were also lighter," Mankad said.
As it were, the India Davis Cupper dismantled Enev with his compact forehand winners.
Bopanna too faced little resistance from Lobanov, who had packed off fourth seed Satoshi Iwabuchi of Japan in the second round. The 818-ranked Russian however had no clue against Bopanna's big first serves and was troubled by his kicking second serves too.