Mumbai: Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan continued his good run after clinching the men`s title in the senior nationals as he entered the semifinals of the USD 15,000 CCI-ITF Futures tennis tournament, here
The left-handed player, seeded 6 and ranked 400 in the world, got past Indonesian No. 1 and Davis Cupper Christopher Rungkat, seeded no 2 here and ranked 303, 7-6 (2) 6-2 in the quarters to earn a meeting in the semis against compatriot Purav Raja.
Raja, a wild card, continued his sensational run by entering the last four after shutting out James Marsalek of Great Britan, who had shocked Indian No. 3 seed Sriram Balaji in the pre-quarters yesterday, in straight sets (6-3 6-4) in 90 minutes.
The other semifinal will be between Croatian Mate Pavic, conqueror of top seeded Indian Davis Cupper J Vishnu Vardhan (who pulled out after losing the opening set) yesterday, and Taipei`s No. 4 seed Liang-chi Huang.
Pavic sent eighth seeded Indian rival Ranjeet Virali- Murugesan packing 7-6 (2) 6-1 in five minutes under two hours, while Huang defeated Nicholas Reissig of Austria 4-6 6-1 6-2 in an hour and 24 minutes.
Jeevan broke Rungkat in the 4th game of the opening set to jump to a handy 3-1 lead before the Indonesian broke back in the 7th to close the gap to 3-4. Thereafter games went with serves leading to the tie-break.
The Indian youngster won the tie-break 7-3 for the first set.
Jeevan broke his rival`s serve twice - in the 1st and 7th games - to win the second set 6-2 and book a berth in the semis.
In the clash between Raja and 20-year-old Briton Marsalek, the Indian broke his opponent`s serve in the 4th and 6th games of the first set while dropping his own serve in the 5th.
Raja and his British rival traded breaks in the 5th and 6th games before the former effected the decisive break in the 9th before clinching the second set and the match.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, October 25, 2012, 18:55