Top-seeded Enrique Lopez-Perez of Spain registered a 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-0 win over fifth-seeded Frenchman Mathias Bourgue and advanced to the semifinals of the Vasan Eye Care-ITF men’s Futures tennis championship at the Union Club here on Thursday.
After losing the opening set, Bourgue put up a good show in the second, serving and hitting strokes with confidence.
He even stretched the 10th game to two deuces before Lopez-Perez held to 5-5. In the tiebreaker, Bourgue raced to a 5-3 lead and never looked back.
The top seed, however, was all over his opponent in the decider breaking him in the second, fourth, and sixth games, to the sweep the set.
In another quarterfinal fixture, third-seeded N. Sriram Balaji defeated Lucas Renard of Sweden 6-7(5), 7-6(3), 6-1. Renard drew first blood, breaking Balaji in the seventh game. Down 0-40 on serve, Balaji saved two break points, but hit a backhand into the net to go down 3-4.
In the doubles final, Arun Prakash Rajagopalan and Ramkumar will lock horns with Giorgio Portaluri and Renard.
The results:
Singles (quarterfinals): Enrique Lopez-Perez (Esp) bt Mathias Bourgue (Fra) 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-0; Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Giorgio Portaluri (Ita) 6-3, 3-6, 4-2 (retd.); N. Sriram Balaji bt Lucas Renard (Swe) 6-7(5), 7-6(3), 6-1; Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Vijayant Malik 6-1, 7-6(5).
Doubles (semifinals): Arun Prakash Rajagopalan & Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Kaza Vinayak Sharma & P.C. Vignesh 6-4, 6-2; Giorgio Portaluri & Lucas Renard bt Nitten Kirrtane & Sasi Kumar Mukund 3-6, 7-6(5), 10-5.
