Trusunov, Berdych struggle before advancing; Auckland upsets Moodie

Mumbai, Sep 28 (UNI) Fourth seed Dmitry Tursunov survived a huge scare before overcoming Kristian Pless of Denmark and booking his quarterfinal berth in a tough 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3 win in the 380,000 dollars Kingfisher Airlines Open tennis tournament played at the CCI courts here today.

Third seed Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic, though not his fluent self, still packed enough punch to beat the challenge of Simon Greul of Germany in straight sets 7-6 (4), 6-4 to also book a quarterfinal berth.

Also making it to the quarterfinals was number six Bjorn Phau of Germany who beat qualifier G Motomura of Japan in straight sets 6-3, 6-3. Phau will now clash with Berdych for a place in the semis.

In other matches, qualifier James Auckland scored an upset win over eighth seed Weslie Moddie of South Africa 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5), while Ramon Delgado of Paraguay won after his opponent, for the second time in two matches, had to retire following an injury. Juan Martin Del Potro, who had upset the number five seed Moya, in the first round had to retire while trailing 3-6, 1-4 following a stomach ailment.

World number 23 Tursunov, just coming off an epic match against Andy Roddick in the Davis Cup semifinal, started off slowly as Pless put pressure on him with his big first serve. The first set saw both players holding serve as the set went into a tie-breaker. In the tie-breaker, it was Pless who held sway, winning it at 7-5 to pocket the first set 7-6 (5).

However, Tursunov came back strongly and as the match went on, gained in confidence and bagged the next two sets at 6-4, 6-3 to win the match in an hour and 51 minutes.

Tursunov admitted that his game was on and off today and he needs to concentrate harder if he wants to win this tournament. He also said that these were some of the most difficult conditions under which he has played, with the humidity being a major factor.

Phau got his breaks in the fifth and ninth game to wrap up the first set at 6-3. The second set also saw Phau on the ascendancy as the Japanese qualifier could not match the world number 66. Phau got the all important break in the sixth game to wrap up the set in just 28 minutes and move into the quarters. Meanwhile, Rohan Bopanna and Mustafa Ghouse kept the Indian flag flying entering the doubles semis with a straight set victory over Rik De Voest of South Africa and Igor Kunitsyn of Russia at 7-6 (7), 6-1.

In another development, either Mahesh Bhupathi along with his Croat partner Mario Ancic or Leander Paes along with his Pakistani partner Aisam Qureshi would directly enter the finals.

The two pairs are to clash in the quarterfinals, but due to the pull out of the German pair of Simon Greul and Denis Gremelmayr following a hip injury to Gremelmayr, the winner of the quarterfinal would get a direct entry into the finals.

Greul and Gremelmayr had yesterday upset the second seeds Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Robin Vik of Czech Republic at 1-6, 6-4, 10-5 to book their semis place.

Results: Singles second round: (3) Tomas Berdych (Cze) bt. Simon Greul (Ger) 7-6, 6-4; (6) Bjorn Phau bt Gouichi Motomura 6-3, 6-3; (4) Dmitry Tursunov bt Kristian Pless (Den) 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3; Ramon Delgado bt Juan Martin Del Potro (Arg) 6-3, 4-1 (Potro retires due to stomach ailment); James Auckland bt (8) Weslie Moodie (RSA) 7-6, 7-6.

UNI