Harsh Mankad storms into semis

Indian Davis Cupper Harsh Mankad stormed into the semi-finals of the third and final leg of the ITF men's futures tournament with an emphatic 6-1, 6-4 victory over third seed Vijay Kannan in Davangere, Karnataka, on Thursday.

He was joined by fifth seed Nitin Kirtane, who beat qualifier Sriranga Sudhakar 6-1, 7-6(7-2) in another quarter-final match.

Eighth seed Manoj Mahadevan and Ajay Ramaswami took the other two semi-final spots. The former faltered in the second set, but made amends in the third to beat Anton Kokurin of Uzbekistan 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 while National Games gold medallist Ramaswami advanced without playing, as he was given a walk-over by the sixth seed Boris Borgula of Slovakia, who pulled out due to a blister on his hand.

The Mankad-Kannan match was a lop-sided affair, as the latter could hold on only in the first game of the first set. Mankad broke his serve in the third, fifth and seventh games, that despite Kannan thumping in five aces.

Mankad moved very well on court and often came up with lovely crosscourt and down-the-line shots. He also gained many crucial points attacking the net.

The second set saw both players hold serve till the ninth game. Serving to stay in the match at 4-5, Kannan was found wanting as Mankad raced to a 40-0 lead. With three match-points in hand, he broke Kannan at love to clinch the match.

Yesterday's report
Ghouse, Sridhar ousted in second round
Ramaswami upsets Sipaeya