Bopanna nets big Fish

Rohan Bopanna pulled off one of the biggest wins in his career by toppling world number 41 American Mardy Fish to advance...

Rohan Bopanna pulled off one of the biggest wins in his career by toppling world number 41 American Mardy Fish to advance to the singles quarter-finals of the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport, United States.

Qualifier Bopanna, ranked as low as 374, beat the top seed 7-6 6, 7-5 in a gruelling second round contest and now faces Davis Cup team mate and wild card entrant Prakash Amritraj, who beat Jesse Levine of the USA 7-5, 6-3 in his second round clash yesterday.

8220;I was not concerned about his rankings. I just played an aggressive game,8221; an elated Bopanna said after the win.

This is for the first time that Bopanna has made it to the quarter-finals of an ATP event.

Fish8217;s loss assures that a No. 1 seed still hasn8217;t won the title in the tournament8217;s 31-year history on the grass courts at the Hall.

8220;Obviously, it8217;s extremely, extremely disappointing to lose here again,8221; Fish said. 8220;I8217;ve never ever played well here. I so desperately wanted to play well here. Every year I walk off the court thinking, 8216;Why can8217;t I get that tiebreaker or that break point?8221;8217;

Fish, ranked 41st in the world, led 5-2 in the tiebreaker before Bopanna scored the next three points. The key was an ace that tied it 5-all. After Fish went up 6-5, Bopanna held serve for the next two points before the set ended when Fish sliced a backhand into the net.

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8220;It8217;s tough to get into a groove on these courts,8221; Fish said. 8220;You don8217;t get too many true bounces.8221;

In the second set, Fish led 2-1 and was one point away from breaking serve, but Bopanna followed with consecutive aces and won the game when Fish flubbed a return at the baseline. Bopanna then broke Fish to take control at 3-2.

Fish broke for 5-5 but Bopanna recovered by breaking back and his 14th ace gave him match point, in which Fish hit a lunging backhand into the net.

Bopanna and Amritraj can also find themselves in opposite side of the court in the doubles event, if they manage to win their quarter-final clashes with their respective partners.

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In other play, fourth-seeded Igor Kunitsyn easily defeated Mikhail Ledovskikh 6-1, 6-1 in an all-Russian match; seventh-seeded Frank Dancevic, Canada8217;s top player, beat American qualifier Brendan Evans 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 3. In the last first-round match, Ivan Navarro of Spain ousted Rik de Voest of South Africa 7-5, 6-4.

Indians crash out

Meanwhile, Indians did not have a good day on the ITF circuit as all four players crashed out of the 15,000 ITF events in Syria and Turkey. Fourth seed Alexander Somogyi of Slovakia pipped Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 and Russian sixth seed Dmitri Sitak defeated Vignesh Peranamallur-Chandrasekhar 6-2, 6-2, while Rahil Makharia lost 2-6, 7-5, 3-6 to Nigerian Sunday Emmanuel. Vishnu Vardhan put up a brave fight before losing 7-6 2, 7-5 to Tihomir Grozdanov of Bulgaria in Turkey.

Safin eliminated

Bastad: Potito Starace beat Wimbledon semi-finalist Marat Safin 7-6 4, 3-6, 6-4 and reached the quarter-finals of the Swedish Open on Wednesday. In Friday8217;s quarter-finals, Starace will play fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.