Yuki Bhambri tamed Chris Eaton of Britain 7-6(5), 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Thursday.
It was a quality fare from the 17-year-old Yuki, the world No.1 junior. The Briton lacked a steady game. Flashes of brilliance were not good enough to tackle a player of the calibre of Yuki.
Eaton did not serve that well, and that took the sting away from his challenge.
Turning it around
Yet, it was Eaton who led 4-1 in the first set tie-break, before Yuki swung things around by winning the next five points, three of them through winners, including a forehand crosscourt passing shot that set up two set points.
The Briton saved the first with a good serve, but put a backhand return long on the second set point to lose the initiative.
Into the second set, the Briton was dispirited and got broken in the fifth and ninth games.
Vishnu advances
The top-seeded Vishnu Vardhan was the other Indian to make the semifinals, and did so with an attacking power game against the seventh-seeded Peter Lucassen of the Netherlands.
Vishnu made it a straight forward affair with breaks in the first and seventh games of the first set, and the fifth game of the second.
There was a lot of tension in the contest, and the two players had heated exchanges even after the match, before referee Puneet Gupta intervened to cool matters down.
Repeat clash
It will be a repeat clash for Vishnu against the third-seeded Young-Jun Kim of Korea, the champion of last week.
Kim was unable to assert himself as well as he had done in the last tournament against the national champion V.M. Ranjeet. However, Ranjeet’s improved performance was good enough to help him win only six games against the Korean.
The results: Singles (quarterfinals): Vishnu Vardhan bt Peer Lucassen (Ned) 6-2, 6-4; Young-Jun Kim (Kor) bt V. M. Ranjeet 6-2, 6-4; Krishananth Balakrishnan (Aus) bt Jae-Won Choi (Kor) 6-4, 6-1; Yuki Bhambri bt Chris Eaton (GBr) 7-6(5), 6-3.
Doubles (semifinals): Tim Bradshaw and Max Jones (GBr) bt Ashutosh Singh and Vishnu Vardhan 6-4, 4-6, 10-4; Rupesh Roy and Vivek Shokeen bt Young-Jae Kim and Yong-Jun Kim (Kor) 6-4, 3-6, 10-4.
