Bopanna, Divji into last four

New Delhi, Dec 22 (UNI) Top seed Rohan Bopanna served and stroked with confidence to demolish fifth seed Karan Rastogi 6-2, 6-4 and advance into the last four of the State Bank of Saurashtra 15,000 dollar ITF men's Futures tennis tournament.

Twenty-year-old Bopanna sht 11 aces and coupled his fiery serve with maturity and placement in his groundstrokes as his rival looked hapless.

In another match, a gutsy Divij Sharan showed remarkable composure as he served and volleyed his way past lucky loser Hiroki Kondo of Japan 6-2, 6-1 to setup a semifinal clash against Bopanna.

Wild card Sanam Singh got off to a good start but failed to tighten the noose as Korean qualifier Hyun-Woo Nam rallied to win the match 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Fourth seed Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan missed a matchpoint in the tenth game of the second set and had to labour for a 6-3, 6-7(6), 7-6(2) victory against Todor Enev of Bulgaria.

Meanwhile in the doubles, Rohan Bopanna and Mustafa Ghouse defeated Vijay Kannan and Pathanjali Ravishankar 6-4, 6-2 to advance into the final.

Bopanna-Ghouse take on Indo-Kazakh pair of Sunil Kumar and Alexey Kedriouk who edged past Sandeep Kirtane and Purav Raja 2-6, 6-2, 6-1.

UNI DH MSJ DB2006