Second seed Sidharth Rawat stopped Siddharth Vishwakarma 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals of the $5000 Asian Tennis Tour men’s event at the DLTA Complex here on Tuesday.
It was a solid performance by the supremely fit Rawat, playing his second match of the day, against the wiry left-hander. Rawat had overwhelmed Davis Cupper Vijayant Malik with surprising ease — losing just a solitary game — earlier in the evening.
Rawat raced to a 5-1 lead and was in cruise mode thereafter too despite a fighting performance by Vishwakarma in the semifinal. Against Malik, Rawat conceded a game only after winning 11 on the trot.
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Jayesh Pungliya knocked out fourth seed Kunal Anand 6-7(2), 6-0, 7-5 in the quarterfinals. It was an impressive performance by the former who turned the match around with his fiery strokes and intense concentration at the crunch. Pungliya saved a breakpoint in the 12th game of the decider before serving out the match.
Kunal Anand, a regular on the international circuit, lost his grip over the contest midway through the decider. He gave vent to his frustration by smashing the racquet, and was slapped with a code violation.
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Pungliya fine performance saw him being rewarded with a semifinal against top seed Vishnu Vardhan, who tamed the young Adil Kalyanpur for the loss of just three games.
The results: Semifinal: Sidharth Rawat bt Siddharth Vishwakarma 6-3, 6-4. Quarterfinals: Vishnu Vardhan bt Adil Kalyanpur 6-1, 6-2; Jayesh Pungliya bt Kunal Anand 6-7(2), 6-0, 7-5; Vishwakarma bt Chinmaya Chauhan 6-1, 6-2; Rawat bt Vijayant Malik 6-0, 6-1; Pre-quarterfinals: Chauhan bt Rahul Sadhwani 6-1, 2-6, 6-2.