Rohan Gajjar's maiden entry to ITF Futures semis

The journey from the qualifying rounds to semis is certainly a dream run for Rohan Gajjar as he once again gave a good account of himself as he edged past the challenge of Spaniard Guillermo Alacaide 7-6(6), 6-4 to enter the semifinals of the $15,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament played at the DLTA Complex here on Thursday.

This is Gajjar’s maiden semifinal appearance in a Futures tournament like this that too after playing three rounds of qualifying before entering to main draw.

Rohan got some resistance from his third seed opponent in the opening set as it stretched down to the tie-breaker that was eventually captured by him. But later he just got one break point to register an upset win.

Once Alcaide committed a double-fault in the third game of the crucial second set, Rohan got hold of the match from thereon. Rohan engaged the Spaniard in long rallies and gave no chance to Alcaide to stage any comeback into the match. Rohan finished the proceedings to be an exact hour and 22 minutes.

Navdeep Singh, who scored an upset win over top-seed in the first round and later accounted compatriot Divij Sharan, couldn't continue his good run as he lost 0-6, 5-7 from the hands of Kazakhstan's Alexey Kedryuk.

Navdeep meekly surrendered against his opponent in the first set as Kedryuk broke Navdeep thrice in the set and won it convincingly 6-0. But after losing the opening set so badly, Navdeep showed some resilience in the latter as he took a 4-1 lead in the second.

Kedryuk came up with seven aces and was always in the control of the match. The Kazakh broke Navdeep in the fourth and again in the 12th game to seal the match in his favour in an hour and 38 minutes.

Bulgaria’s Simeon Ivanov got the better off China’s Peng Sun 7-5, 6-3, while second seed German Alexander Satschko beat Serbia’s David Savic 6-3, 6-2 to storm into semis.

In the doubles, the pair of Vivek Shokeen and Ashutosh Singh rallied to score an 6-7(3), 6-3, 10-4 upset win over top-seed duo of Mustafa Ghouse and Purav Raja.

Shokeen and Singh will now fight it out with second seeds Vijay Kannan and Kedryuk in the finals, who defeated the Bulgaria-Serbia duo of Enev Todor and David Savic 6-4, 6-2.

RESULTS

Quarterfinals: Alexey Kedryuk (Kaz) bt Navdeep Singh 6-0, 7-5; Rohan Gajjar bt Guillermo Alcaide (Esp) 7-6(6), 6-4; Simeon Ivanov (Bul) bt Peng Sun (Chn) 7-5, 6-3; Alexander Staschko (Ger) bt David Savic (Srb) 6-3, 6-2.

Doubles: Semifinals: Vivek Shokeen & Ashutosh Singh bt Mustafa Ghouse & Purav Raja 6-7(3), 6-3, 10-4; Vijay Kannan & Kedryuk bt Enev Todor (Bul) & Savic 6-4, 6-2.