Divij, Vishnu advance in Kolkata ITF

Kolkata, March 24 (IANS) Fifth seed Divij Sharan dispatched Israel's Gilad Berman 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the pre-quarterfinals of the ITF men's future tennis here Tuesday.

Divij next plays American qualifier Jared Drucker who pummelled India's V. Peranamallur Chandrasekhar 6-3, 6-0.

On a day when all the seeds easily cleared the first hurdles, top seed Benjamin Balleret advanced to the second round after Uzbek Vaja Uzakov retired hurt when trailing 0-6, 0-4.

Second-seeded Adam Kellner thrashed Indian qualifier Kamala Kannan 6-3, 6-0 while sixth-seeded Chinse Taipei's (Taiwan) Yong-Kyu Lim overcame mid-match jitters against wildcard N. Prashanth, winning 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.

Lim next play India's harcourt national champion Ranjeeth Virali-Murugesan who beat compatriot Navdeep Singh in a see-saw clash 6-4, 0-6, 6-0.

The eighth-seeded Vishnu Vardhan of India mowed down Taiwan's I-Ta Chen 6-1, 6-0 to set up a meeting with compatriot Vinod Sridhar who swept aside Naom Yitzhaki of Israel 6-4, 6-1.