Bopanna shocks Fazaluddin

Unseeded Rohan Bopanna bagged his second scalp in as many days when he knocked out India Davis Cupper and third seed Syed Fazaluddin to enter the semi-finals in the $10,000 MSLTA-ITF Futures men's international tennis tournament at the Deccan Gymkhana tennis courts in Pune on Thursday.

The Karnataka lad, who had beaten seventh seed Ciaran Moore of South Africa on Wednesday, used his big serve to telling effect to win his quarter-final match 6-2, 7-6 (7-4).

In other quarter-final matches, Michal Varsanyi of Slovakia upset fourth seed Abdul Makahamov of Uzbekistan 6-4, 7-5; top seed Lior Dahan stopped the winning run of India's Sunil Kumar, thrashing him 6-2, 6-0, and second seed Eyan Elrich of Israel proved too good for Jurek Stasiak of Poland to win 6-0, 6-1.

Bopanna, the runner-up at the Indore and Bombay tournaments, packed too many guns for his more experienced opponent. Breaks in the third and seventh games, were enough to give him the first set.

The second set, however, saw Fazaluddin in better light, but there was little he could do to unsettle Bopanna as both players held serve to take the set into the tie-breaker.

In the tie-breaker, Bopanna took charge immediately, scoring with two down-the-line backhand returns. He then wrested the initiative to take the set and match in an hour and 20 minutes.

Bopanna will now take on second seed and world number 557 Elrich, who did not have to break a sweat while beating Stasiak.

In the other semi-final, Lior Dahan will meet Michal Varsanyi.

Prahlad Srinath and Ajay Ramaswami reached their third doubles final, beating another Indian pair in Manoj Mahadevan and Rishi Sridhar 6-4, 6-4.

They meet the Israeli pair of Lior Dahan and Eyal Elrich.

Dahan and Elrich defeated their countrymen Meir Deri and Eliran Dooyev 6-4, 6-0 in the other semi-final.