By IANS
Kolkata : Second seeded Ashutosh Singh of Delhi was defeated by sixth seed Vishnu Vardhan in the quarterfinals of the men’s singles in the Indian Oil Servo National Grasscourt Tennis Championships here Thursday.
Karan Rastogi of Maharashtra lived up to his top billing and edged past Harsh Mankad 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to sail into the semis at the South Club.
In the first set Harsh led of 4-2 breaking Rastogi in the opening game. Rastogi came back strongly and broke Harsh in the eighth and tenth game to take the set at 6-4 in 30 minutes. In the second set, it was Mankad’s turn break Rastogi twice, in the first and seventh game, to take a 5-2 lead.
Rqstogi broke back in the eighth game and kept his serve in the next to close the gap to 4-5. In the 10th game, Mankad squandered four set points before converting the fifth to take the match into a decider. The final set was a routine affair Rastogi breaking Mankad in the second and sixth games while losing in the fifth.
In the women’s singles quarters, top seed Rushmi Chakravarthi of Tamil Nadu cruised to a comfortable win over seventh seed Rashmi Teltumbde of Maharashtra 6-1,6-2 in 58 minutes.
Unseeded Pooja Shree Venkatesh of Karnataka ousted state mate and third seed Asha Nanda Kumar 7-5,6-1 in 72 minutes. In the fourth quarterfinals eighth seeded Delhi girl Shalini Sahoo got the better of second seed Sonal Phadke of Maharashtra 6-3,6-1 in 100 minutes.
Results:
Quarterfinals:
Men’s singles: Karan Rastogi (1)(Mah)(3) beat Harsh Mankad (WC)(Mah) 6-4,4-6,6-3; Divij Sharan (4)(Dli)(7) beat Vinod Sridhar (7)(TN)(12)6-4,6-3; V.M. Ranjeet (TN)(18) beat Syed Fazaluddin (WC)(WB) 6-1,6-2; J. Vishnu Vardhan (6)(AP)(11) beat Ashutosh Singh (2)(Dli)(4) 6-4,6-0.
Women’s singles: Rushmi Chakravarthy (1)(TN)(4) beat Rashmi Teltumbde (7)(Mah)(17) 6-1,6-2; Pooja Shree Venkatesh (Kar)(42) beat Asha Nanda Kumar (Q)(3)(Kar)(11) 7-5,6-1; Treta Bhattacharyya (WB)(35) beat Ragini Vimal (6)(WB)(15) 6-4,5-7,6-4; Shalini Sahoo (8)(Dli)(19) beat Sonal Phadke (2)(Mah)(9) 6-3,6-1.
Men’s doubles: Aditya Madkekar (Kar) & Rohan Gajjar (Mah)(2) beat Rohan Gide (Mah) & Shivang Mishra (Dli) 7-5,6-4.
Women’s doubles: Geeta Manohar (Kar) & Archana Venkatraman (Kar) beat Asha Nanda Kumar (Kar) & Sagarika Phadke (Mah)(3) 6-2,7-5.
Semi-finals:
Men’s doubles: J. Vishnu Vardhan (AP) & Vinod Sridhar (TN)(3) w/o Divij Sharan (Dli) & Ashutsh Singh (Dli)(1); N. Sriram Balaji (TN) & V.M. Ranjeet (TN)(4) beat Aditya Madkekar (Kar) & Rohan Gajjar (Mah)(2) 6-3,4-6,(10-1).
Women’s doubles: Geeta Manohar (Kar) & Archana Venkatraman (Kar) beat Pooja Shree Venkatesh (Kar) & Janaki Gunuganti (AP) 6-1,3-6,(10-3).