Vijender in World Championship quarterfinals

Top seed Vijender Singh survived a scare from unheralded Canadian Steve Rolls to become the second Indian to make the quarterfinals of the World Boxing Championships in Milan, Italy.

The Olympic bronze medal-winning middle weight pugilist joined Dinesh Kumar (81kg) in the last-eight stage with a 4-2 win over Rolls late last night.

The 23-year-old world number two was trailing 0-1 in the opening round but drew form his experience and long reach to get the better of his rival.

Vijender landed a couple of straight combination punches to end the second round 2-1 up.

In the third round, Vijender increased his lead by a couple of more points and spent the final few seconds of the bout dodging his opponent with intelligent footwork and sharp jabs.

Vijender will now take on Sergiy Derevyanchenko of Ukraine in the quarterfinals on Wednesday night.

Derevyanchenko defeated Adem Killici of Turkey in the other pre-quarterfinal bout.

This is the first time that two Indians have made the quarterfinals of boxing's blue-ribbon event.