Somdev in last eight, Rastogi out of Singapore ATP Challenger

Singapore, Jan 27 (PTI) Top seeded Somdev Devvarmanregistered a comfortable straight set victory over AustralianJohn Millman to enter into the quarterfinals of the SingaporeATP Challenger, while Karan Rastogi bowed out of the eventafter losing to Russia''s Dmitry Tursonov in the second round.

Somdev played some intelligent tennis to outplay hisopponent 6-4, 6-3 in just one and a half hours at the Kallangtennis centre, here.

During the course of the match, Somdev hit five aces andgot 71 per cent of first serves right against the 203rd rankedAustralian Millman.

In the first set, Somdev broke Millman once in the thirdgame, while in the second set he broke his opponent twice --first in the third and then in the ninth game.

Somdev will take on eighth seeded and 169th ranked AndrejMartin of Slovakia in the quarterfinal match to be playedtomorrow.

Meanwhile, former world No 20 Tursonov proved too strongfor wildcard entrant 332nd ranked Rastogi, as he got thebetter of the Indian 6-4, 6-2 in one hour and six minutes.

Rastogi, who also lost in the doubles yesterday, earnedeight ATP points for his effort.

Tursonov, ranked 197, will now play Italy''s FlavioCippola in the last eight tomorrow.

In the biggest upset of the day, Singaporean bornAmerican wildcard entrant Michael Yani, returning back to hiscountry after 22 years, knocked out third seeded and 140thranked Italian Paolo Lorenzi to make it to the last eightstage.

In another match, American-Indian Rajiv Ram saved sevenmatch points and fired 14 aces before going down to sixthseeded Czech player Lukas Rosol 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(6) in a matchlasting 2 hours and 48 minutes.

Results (second round singles): Somdev Devvarman (Ind)bt John Millman (Aus) 6-4, 6-3; Andrej Martin (Svk) bt MatteoViola (Ita) 6-4, 7-5; Dmitry Tursonov (Rus) bt Karan Rastogi(Ind) 6-3, 6-2; Lukas Rosol (Cze) bt Rajeev Ram (USA) 7-5,4-6, 7-6(6); Michael Yani (USA) bt Paolo Lorenzi (Ita) 6-3,6-4; Ito Tatsuma (Jpn) bt Nick Lindhal (Swe) 6-0, 1-2 retd.