Yuki Bhambri knocks out 7th seed Yuichi Sugita, moves to singles quarters

Yuki Bhambri pipped Yuichi Sugita in straight sets to move to the singles quarter-finals of the ATP Challenger event on Thursday.

Kaohsiung (Taiwan): Yuki Bhambri avenged his two previous defeats against Yuichi Sugita as the Indian pipped the Japanese in straight sets to move to the singles quarter-finals of the ATP Challenger event, here on Thursday.

Yuki, who had qualified for the singles main draw, edged past his seventh seed rival 7-6 (5), 7-5 in the second round of the USD 125,000 hard court event. Yuki had lost both his previous matches against Sugita - in USA last year and in Japan in 2011. It was battle of attrition between the players but Yuki overcame an early break in the second set to emerge winner after one hour 57 minutes. After trading breaks, the first set was decided through tie breaker, in which Yuki prevailed when he converted his first set point on his rival`s serve. Yuki dropped his serve at love in the third game of the second set to hand Sugita advantage but made it even-steven when he converted his fourth break chance in the 10th game for a 5-5 scoreline. Confident after getting back the break, Yuki served out the next game at love and the Japanese was now serving to stay in the match. Sugita though wilted under pressure as he was down 0-40 and Yuki converted the second match point for a convincing win. PTI