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Ramaswami, Kannan to clash in semis

December 01, 2004 16:38 IST

Ajay Ramaswami set up a semi-final date with Vijay Kannan after the two Indians easily won their quarter-final matches in the ITF Men's Satellite Tennis Masters tournament in Delhi on Wednesday.

Ramaswamy defeated Adam Fass of the United States 6-1, 7-6 (10/8) while Kannan thrashed fifth seed Tobias Koeck of Austria 6-3, 6-1 at the DLTA Complex.

In other matches, top seed Simon Greul of Germany defeated Davor Kuseta of Croatia 6-2, 6-3 while Konstantin Gruber went through after Italian Stefano Ianni retired due to fever after just one game.

Greul will meet Gruber in the second semi-final on Thursday.

After a grueling victory against fourth seed Norikazu Sugiyama on Tuesday, world no. 664 Ramaswamy continued his impressive form to dominate the proceedings against 946-ranked

Fass, allowing the American to win just the fourth game in the first set.

But Fass, who threw tantrums on losing serve and picked up a warning for code violation, gave a tough fight to the Mumbaikar in the next set.

The two players were engaged in an even battle till 3-3 before Fass took a 5-3 lead. But Ramaswamy cameback quickly and levelled the score at 5-5.

In the tie-breaker, Fass won the first three points before the Indian won the next three. The give and take continued for the next eight points before Ramaswamy clinched the match in one hour and 35 minutes.

The quarter-final between Kannan and Koeck provided dull fare as the Austrian looked totally off-colour. The match was over in exactly an hour.

Though Kannan missed several chances, he benefited from Koeck's double faults to advance to the semis.

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