Last year's winner Karan Rastogi and Harsh Mankad will fight it out in the final of ABN AMRO Challenger on Sunday for a wildcard for the qualifying rounds of the ABN AMRO World Tennis tournament to be held in Rotterdam February next year.
In the first semi-final match at the DLTA Tennis Complex in New Delhi on Saturday, Rastogi, who played in the Rotterdam tournament last year, had little difficulty in getting past higher-ranked Rohan Bopanna 6-1, 6-3.
The 25-year-old Bopanna, who made a comeback after a shoulder injury, could hold only one serve in the first set. He put up a semblance a fight in the second set, but that too after he failed to hold his serve in the second game and Rastogi was 3-0 up.
After holding next two serves with the scoreline reading 4-2, Bopanna pressed hard for a service break which show the two fighting out two duece points before Rastogi won it. Disappointed at the chance slipping away, Bopanna almost failed to hold his next serve, but could maintain it 5-3.
Rastogi did not waste much time and won the last game without losing a point and wrapped up the set and match 6-3.
In another semi-final match, India's highest ranked player Harsh Mankad beat Vishal Uppal in straight sets 6-3, 6-3.
Earlier, in quarterfinal matches, Harsh Mankad overcame Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 6-1, 6-7(1/6), 6-2 while Vishal Uppal tamed Sunil Sipaeya 7-5, 6-1. The other two matches saw Karan Rastogi beat Vivek Shokeen 6-0, 7-6(3) and Rohan Bopanna going past Divij Sharon 7-5, 6-2.
