Better stamina and stroke-play clinched the issue in favour of 817th ranked Prakash Amritraj, who ended the aspirations of local favourite and third seed Sunil Kumar Sipaeya in the quarter-finals of the $10,000 SAIL Hospitality ITF Men's Futures Tennis Tournament in Chandigarh on Thursday.
All four quarter-final matches were decided in three sets.
Prakash snuffed out the spirited challenge of Sipaeya, a former trainee of CLTA Rural Scheme, winning 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-2, in two hours and 41 minutes.
Both players fired six aces each. Sunil committed nine double-faults and Prakash six.
In another match, fourth seeded Vijay Kannan was stretched to three sets by wild card entrant Tushar Liberhan, a former CLTA trainee. Kannan won 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 in 125 minutes.
Trailing 2-4 in the third set, Tushar lost his temper and hit the ball in the stands after committing a double-fault. He committed three double-faults in the sixth game. In all, he committed seven double faults and served a solitary ace, while big server Kannan fired eight aces.
Top seeded Karan Rastogi was also extended to three sets by unseeded Purav Raja.
Down by a set, Rastogi bounced into the game with vengeance to record a 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory in two hours and 23 minutes.
Later, on the centre court, unseeded Vishal Punna, who had upset second seeded Vivek Shokeen on Wednesday, shocked seventh seed Aditya Madkekar 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in one hour and 59 minutes.
