Indians advance in ITF junior event

A day after the top Indian seeds were ousted, the DLTA Deco-turfs on Wednesday saw Sourabh Singh, Chatwinder Singh and Tushar Liberhan book quarter-finals berths in the ITF Junior tennis tournament.

Indian hopes were kept alive as third seed Sourabh Singh edged out Barbash Lior (Israel) 6-4, 6-1; Chatwinder Singh beat P Natapong (Thailand) 6-1, 6-4 and Tushar Liberhan knocked out P Imanuel (Indonesia) 6-1, 6-0.

Dor Wetheimer of Israel, who ousted top seed Jaco T Mathew in the first round on Tuesday, continued his winning run, beating sixth seed S Devvarman of India 6-3, 6-4 in a 75-minute match.

In the women's section too, the hosts dominated the day, with top seed Isha Lakhani leading the seeds in to the next round. She beat Wen Hsing Hsu of Taipei 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 in a tough, one hour 35-minutes match.

Second seed Sanaa Bhambri downed fifth seed I-Hsuan of Taipei 6-4, 6-2, while Kartiki Bhat gave absolutely no chance to compatriot Sandri Gangotri and thrashed her 6-0, 6-0.

Meanwhile, Vandana Murali of India was shown the door by Taipei girl Yung Jan Chan, who won 6-3, 6-4.

In the doubles matches, Divij Sharan/Tushar Liberhan entered the semifinals as they defeated Israeli pair Mickey Lesser and Werthimer Dor 6-1, 6-2.

Indian girls Isha Lakhani and Kartiki Bhat won against Diana Senkina (Russia)/Elina Arutunova (Uzbekistan) 6-4, 7-5.