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Aqeel Khan too good for Vishal Uppal

June 30, 2004 19:48 IST

Fifteenth seed Ajay Ramaswami enjoyed an easy ride en route to the semi-finals as his quarter-final opponent Prahlad Srinath retired hurt in the ITF men's Satellite Masters tournament in Delhi on Wednesday.

Ramaswami will meet fifth seed Aqeel Khan of Pakistan in the semis on Thursday.

The other semi-final will see third seed Joshua Goodall of Britain challenging top seed Norikazu Sugiyama of Japan.

Ramaswami was leading 2-0 in the first set when Srinath decided to call it quits.

Aqeel, who played the first two legs as a wild card, upset former Indian Davis Cup player and winner of the second leg Vishal Uppal in straight sets, 6-1, 7-5.

Though Uppal fought hard in the second set and matched the Pakistani stroke for stroke, Aqeel held his nerve to clinch the vital break to win the second set and match.

Goodall beat Vinod Sridhar 6-2, 6-3, the Indian mounting a late resistance in the second set but in the end it was a case of too little too late.

Sugiyama found Vijay Kannan a tough nut to crack with the Indian going full throttle in the first set, which the Japanese won in the tie-break before shifting gears in the second set to advance with a 7-6 (7/2) 6-2 victory.

In the doubles final, the Indian duo of Saurabh Kohli and Jaco T Mathew will take on the winner of the second semifinal between Ajay Ramaswami/Vishal Uppal and Kamala Kannan/Hiu-Tung Yu.


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