Fazaluddin enters doubles final

But the bright side of the dull day was the relentless spirit of Oren Motevassel. Showing monk with patience, he believes in the simple philosophy of push, push, push and then shove. Playing Motevassel is like a session of wall practise. Anything that is hit, regardless of the pace, is bound to be thrown back. The relentless returner’s added qualifications include mind-blowing endurance and an unshakable mental makeup. When Motevassel administers this concoction to his opponents it gets them into a trance and makes them mess up simple shots.

Top seed Oleg Ogorodov was the first big victim of this phenomenon while Dahan Lior become the second today. Lior, who seemed untouchable against the more conventional stroke player Mark Neilsen on Thursday, was just unable to do an encore against the slow paced Motevassel. A break in the ninth game meant, Motevassel won the first set at 6-4. Dahan came back to win the second set at 6-4 but the decider again went Motevassel’s way with the same margin.

The first semi-final too was an contest of equals. A simple volley missed at the net at break point in his second service game costed Coetzee the first set. The single break first set was followed by three in the next. With Kutsenko failing to hold serve twice, Coetzee was again on even keel.

Table were turned in the third set and Kutsenko came out winner.

RESULTS :

Singles (semis): Vadim Kutsenko (Uzbekistan) bt Jeff Coetzee (South Africa) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4; Oren Motevassel (Israel) bt Dahan Lior (Israel) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

Doubles (semis): Syed Fazaluddin (India) and Cedric Kauffmann (France) bt Jeff Coetzee (South Africa) and Toumas Ketola (Finland) 2-6, 6-4, 6-3; Justin Bower (South Africa) an Damien Roberts (South Africa) bt Gregory Carraz (France) and Jerome Hanquez (France) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.