Second seed Vishnu Vardhan defeated eighth seed Nathan Thompson of the United States 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-1, while fourth seed Rohan Gajjar beat Roman Jebavy of Czech Republic 6-4, 7-5 to enter the semifinals of ITF Futures men's circuit tennis tournament at IGMC stadium here on Thursday.
India's Rupesh Roy made it to the last four with top seed Yuki Bhambri conceding the match in the second set owing to dehydration. V.M. Ranjeet, down one set, rallied back to tame K. Vinayak Sharma 4-6, 6-2. 6-3 and enter the semifinals.
The match of the day was between Vishnu Vardhan and Thompson, the winner of the ITF Kolkata tourney, which went beyond two hours. Vishnu, with the local crowd egging on him, broke Thompson in the 8th game and later went on to win the set 6-3.
The second set witnessed a fierce on-court tussle with both the players holding serves. The tie-breaker saw Thompson taking an early 3-0 lead with some brilliant passing shots. Vishnu fumbled at the net a couple of times thus enabling Thompson win the set 7-6(4).
However, Vishnu packed more power in his forehand strokes and broke Thompson in the 3rd game to win the decider at 6-1.
The unseeded Vinayak Sharma, who was serving well, won the first set with some immaculate returns. Fifth seed Ranjeet played aggressive tennis in the next two sets to emerge victorious.
“I played the big points tight,” said Ranjeet after the victory.
The results (quarterfinals, Indians unless stated): Rohan Gajjar bt Roman Jebavy (Cze) 6-4, 7-5, Ranjeet Murugesan bt K. Vinayak Sharma 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, Vishnu Vardhan bt Nathan Thompson (USA) 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-1, Rupesh Roy bt Yuki Bhambri 7-6 (3), 2-0 (retd).
