Mukesh wins Match of the Tournament, reaches semis

New Delhi, Apr 13 (UNI) On a day which witnessed as many as five upsets in eight pre-quarter ties and one in the quarters, Mukesh Kumar beat arch-rival Feroz Ali to move into the semifinals of the Rs 12 lakh SRF All-India Matchplay Golf Championship here today.

Mukesh beat Feroz 5&4 even as local golfers Shamim Khan and Vinod Kumar and Lucknow 's Vijay Kumar moved into the penultimate day's contest.

Tomorrow, Mukesh is drawn to play Shamim while Vijay will battle it out with Vinod for a spot in 36-hole final at the par-72 Delhi Golf Club.

Among the leading seeds to receive the boot was third seed Ashok Kumar who was done in by Vinod Kumar 2&1. Fourth seed Digvijay Singh sliced his ball into the right rough on the first play-off hole to lose to Shamim Khan while seventh seed Sanjay Kumar was birdied out of the game by Ali Sher who, incidentally, was seven-under par after nine and finished 17 holes at eight-under. Ali went on to win 2&1.

In an evenly matched contest, eighth seed Harinder Gupta lost 1-up to the experienced ninth seed Feroz Ali and 11th seed Arjun Singh lost to Vivek Bhandari 2&1.

In the quarter final clashes, Shamim Khan beat Shiv Prakash 4&2, while Ali Sher, after taking Vijay to the ropes, needed to two-putt from ten feet to take his opponent to the 19th. He three putted instead and Vijay won 1-up. The Vivek Bhandari-Vinod Kumar clash ended in the latter's favour at 2-up.

Quarterfinal score: 1-Mukesh Kumar bt. 9-Feroz Ali(5&4); 2-Vijay Kumar bt. 23-Ali Sher(1-up); 12-Shiv Prakash lost to 20-Shamim Khan(4&2); 19 Vinod Kumar bt. 38-Vivek Bhandari(2-up) (Pre-Quarters): 1-Mukesh Kumar bt. 49-As Malik(2&1); 2-Vijay Kumar bt. 50-Shankar Das(3&2); 3-Ashok Kumar lost to 19-Vinod Kumar(2&1); 4-Digvijay Singh lost to 20-Shamim Khan(19th hole); 7-Sanjay Kumar lost to 23-Ali Sher(2&1) ; 8-Harinder Gupta lost to 9-Feroz Ali(1-up); 11-Arjun Singh lost to 38-Vivek Bhandari(2&1); 12-Shiv Prakash bt. 28-Pappan(2&1).

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