Indian Davis Cupper Rohan Bopanna caused a mild flutter when he ousted fourth seed Fred Hemmes of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-3 on way to a place in the men's singles semi-finals in the US $15,000 ITF-Futures tennis tournament in Mumbai on Thursday.
The other Indian left in the fray, giant-killer Vijay Kannan, however, met his match in qualifier Zbynek Mlynarik of Austria, going down 6-4, 6-4 in another quarter-final, which lasted an hour and three minutes.
Bopanna, who is seeded fifth in this tournament, played some breathtaking backhand passing shots to break Hemmes in the second game and then held his own to take a 3-0 lead. Though he dropped serve in the fifth game, he managed to break back in the sixth to go a break up. With a break in the eighth game the Indian pocketed the set.
In the second set, Bopanna kept his opponent guessing with his powerful, well-angled serves. Once he broke Hemmes in the fourth game, he just went through the motions before winning it at 6-3.
Bopanna served as many as eight aces in the match with half that number of double-faults as well, while his Hemmes sent in nine aces and one double-fault.
Kannan, who served as many as four aces in the first game, dropped his serve in the third game to lose the first set 6-4.
In the second set, the Indian dropped serve in the very first game, despite serving two aces early in the set. The Austrian, despite being erratic, thereafter proceded to take the set at 6-4.
British qualifier Jonathan Marray was the third player to book a semi-final berth when he rallied magnificently, after dropping the first set 4-6, to pip another giant-killer Baptiste Dupuy of France 4-6, 7-6 (9-7) ,6-4 in an hour and 50 minutes
On Friday, in the semi-finals, Marray will take on Bopanna while Mlynarik will play another unseeded player, David Sherwood of Great Britain, who sidelined qualifier Daniel Lesske of Germany 7-5, 6-4.
Results:
Men's singles quarter-finals: Rohan Bopanna (Ind) bt Fred Hemmes (Ned) 6-2, 6-3; David Sherwood (GBR) bt Daniel Lesske (Ger) 7-5, 6-4; Zbynek Mlynarik (Aut) bt Vijay Kannan (Ind) 6-4, 6-4, Jonathan Marray (GBR) bt Baptiste Dupuy (Fra) 4-6, 7-6(9-7), 6-4.
Doubles quarter-finals: Jonathan Marray/David Sherwood (GBR) bt Alessandro Da Col/Giuseppe Menga (Ita) 6-3, 7-6 (7-2); Harsh Mankad/Vishal Uppal (Ind) bt Nitin Kirtane/Sandeep Kirtane (Ind) 6-3, 7-5; Vijay Kannan/Ajay Ramaswamy (Ind) bt Tomas Cakl (Cze)/Juraj Hasko (Svk) 6-4, 6-2; Jasper Smit (Ned) Daniel Lesske (Ger) bt Vadim Davletshin (Rus)/Yew Ming Si (Mal) 7-6 (7-1), 6-3.