Saketh Myneni and Prakash Amritraj kept the Indian flag flying by reaching the men's singles semi-finals in the US $15,000 ITF men's Future Tennis tournament, in Pune, on Thursday.
Fourth seed Myneni accounted for fifth seed, National champion Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 7-6(5), 6-2 in 86 minutes while giant-killer and comeback man Amritraj upset third seed Liang-Chi Huang of Taipei 7-6(4) 6-1 in 78 minutes in the quarter-finals.
In the day's biggest upset, Nicolas Reissig of Austria toppled second seed N Sriram Balaji 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in a well-contested match that lasted an hour and 47 minutes.
Ressig broke Balaji in the third game of the third set to nose ahead. Balaji saved four match-points in the ninth but was unable to match the Austrian in the tenth and bowed out.
Top seed Christopher Rungkat did not have to sweat much to score a 6-2, 6-1 win over last week's runners-up and seventh seeded Mate Pavic, winning in just 55 minutes.
In the semi-finals, Rungkat will take on Myneni while Ressig takes on Amritraj.
Doubles semi-finals:
Saketh Myneni/Purav Raja bt VM Ranjeeth/Vijay Sundar Prashant 6-4, 7-6(5).
Vijayragavan stretches top seed Vardhan
Nedunchezhiyan ousts Rungkat to make CCI-ITF SF
CCI-ITF: Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan to meet Pavic for title
Jeevan outclasses Pavic to win ITF singles title
Balaji rallies to make second round of CCI tennis