By IANS,
New Delhi : India swept aside China to enter the semi-finals of the Asia-Oceania Junior Davis Cup tennis tournament and in the process they booked their place in the World Group Finals in Mexico.
The semi-finalist from the tournament here will proceed to Mexico as the zonal qualifiers.
Saurabh Singh once again gave India a good start, winning the opening singles against China’s No. 2 singles player here, Cao Guan-yu, 6-1, 7-5.
Saurabh had little difficulty in sealing the first set in 28 minutes, dropping only one game as Cao struggled to control his shots which were either too long or wide.
Cao, with his big serve and strong forehand, changed tactics in the second set to unsettle Saurabh with subtle variation of pace. The set turned out to be a tightly contested one as the Chinese raced to 3-0 lead, gaining an early break.
Saruabh reeled off the next four games to jump into a lead, but Cao broke him again and as the Chinese held his serve, the Indian was under pressure to stay in the set.
Suarabh, with intelligent shot selection, then not only held his serve but also gained the decisive break in the 11th game before serving out the match. The Indian squandered three match points before winning in an hour and a half.
Unlike Saurabh, Yuki Bhambri had a scratchy start as he lost the first three games against Yang Lu before fighting back to take six games in a row to clinch the first set 6-3. In fact, he did not drop another game to win the match in 65 minutes.
India later got a walk over in the doubles as the Chinese players pulled out with back problems.
Fourth-seeded India face in the semi-finals Friday top seeds Australia who who beat fifth-seeded Philippines.
In the other semi finals, second seeds Japan, who beat sixth seed Thailand, will face seventh seeds Chinese Taipei who upset third-seeded New Zealand.