Bopanna/Ghouse in semis

The doubles pair of Rohan Bopanna and Mustafa Ghouse advanced to the semi-finals of the $10,000 Bangkok University Open ITF men's futures tennis tournament, in Muang Thong Thani, Thailand, on Thursday.

Unseeded Bopanna and Ghouse defeated a tough pair of Peter Handoyo of Indonesia and Raven Klaasen of South Africa 7-6(1), 3-6, 6-4 in the quarter-finals.

They now face another unseeded pair in Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan and Frank Moser of Germany. Lu and Moser surprised the top seeds, James Auckland of Great Britain and Aisam Qureshi of Pakistan 6-2, 6-3 to enter the semis.

In the other semi-final, wildcard Thai twin brothers Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatan will take on the second seeded South African pair of Rik de Voest and Johan du Randt. The twins upset the third seeded pair of Syed Fazaluddin and Dmitryi Tomashevic of Uzbekistan 7-6(8), 4-6, 6-3, while the South Africans downed Danai Udomchoke and Yeu-Tzuoo Wang of Thailand 6-4, 6-3 in the quarter-finals.

In the singles, Rohan Bopanna could not do much against eighth seed Lior Dahan of Israel and went down 2-6, 2-6 in the second round. Another Indian, Shivang Mishra, who got into the main draw after Mahesh Bhupathi withdrew from the event becuase of an injury worry, also went down 1-6, 1-6 to the fifth seed Yeu-Tzuoo Wang of Taiwan.

Bhupathi felt hamstring tightness during a workout and decided to skip the event.

Top seed Aisam Qureshi from Pakistan moved smoothly into the quarter-finals with a 6-4, 6-4 win over last week's winner Luke Bourgeois of Australia.

Aisam, ranked 268 in the world, will meet the South Korean, Kim Dong-Hyun in the quarter-finals. Kim defeated Robert Cheyne of New Zealand 6-1, 7-6(2).

The Israeli, Lior Dahan will face fourth seeded Benjamin Cassaigne of France, while Frank Moser of Germany will take on Raven Klaasen of South Africa in the quarters.

Earlier report:
Fazaluddin goes down
Fazaluddin registers shock win
Related reports from Pattaya F1 futures:
Bhupathi goes down in quarter-final
Bhupathi in quarters
Bhupathi makes winning singles return