Indian duo sail into semi-final

CALCUTTA, FEB 4: Summer has set foot in Calcutta, at least the day at the South Club here indicated that. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupath...

CALCUTTA, FEB 4: Summer has set foot in Calcutta, at least the day at the South Club here indicated that. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi surely did not expect the city to be so warm at this time of the year, when they preferred to play their matches in the afternoon. With the sun beating down with hostility, the two Indians sweat profusely today, but managed to make it into the semi-finals of the ATP Tour-Challenger with straight set wins.

Another Indian, however, made his exit in the semi-final stage of the doubles. Syed Fazaluddin, pairing Marcus Hilpert, lost to Barry Cowan and Wesley Whitehouse 4-6, 5-7. Fazaluddin had earlier lost in the first round of singles.

Bhupathi, ranked over hundred places below Carraz, did not quite expect the Frenchman to serve as well as he did. With Bhupathi too serving well, it was a serve-and-volley game with Carraz coming to the net more often than his opponent. Carraz passed Bhupathi with a few brilliant shots which the Indian later acknowledged.

Both the playersheld their serves till the 12th game of the first set when Carraz served two double faults. Bhupathi grasped his chance and made a couple of good returns to take the first set. That, in fact, was the only game to go against the serve in the entire match.

The second set found both the players holding their serves, thus forcing a tie-breaker. Bhupathi served his 10th ace of the match to win the first tie-break point. A mini-break at 5-5 helped him win the match by the skin of his teeth.

8220;The 12th games of both the sets were crucial for me and I bungled by serving double faults,8221; Carraz said later. Bhupathi was quite satisfied with his serving, although his right arm wasn8217;t in very good shape. 8220;He was returning well, so I had to push my hand a bit too hard,8221; he said after the match with his forearm heavily strapped. 8220;I am enjoying myself and every singles match I win is a bonus for me.8221; Bhupathi will now meet Toumas Ketola of Finland, who beat Swedish Flyght Kalle 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterstoday.

Top seed Leander Paes will meet fourth seed Italian Mose Navarra for a place in the final tomorrow. Navarra beat Andres Zingman of Argentina 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Paes and Qureshi play a very similar game with not-so-big serves and neat volleys. In fact, it was Paes8217; experience and lightening speed on the court coupled with Qureshi8217;s high percentage of unforced errors that made the result appear one sided.

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Paes earned his first break in the 10th game, which gave him the set. Rather, it might be more appropriate to say that Qureshi broke himself. The Pakistani served an ace only to follow it with four double faults. Adding to that, Qureshi hit two simple volleys into the net.

The second break of the match, in the fourth game of the second set, was genuinely earned by Paes with good serves and excellent placings. Just a game earlier, Qureshi had two break points after Paes served two double faults, but the experienced Indian managed to keep the game. Both held their remaining serves and Paes, quiteexpectedly, moved into the semi-finals.

Results

Singles QF: L Paes bt A Qureshi 6-4 6-3; M Navarra bt A Zingman 6-4 3-6 6-3; T Ketola bt F Kalle 6-4 6-4; M Bhupathi bt G Carraz 7-5 7-6 7-5

Doubles semis: Cowan/ Whitehouse bt Fazaluddin/ Hilpert 6-4, 7-5. Quarter-final: Fredriksson/ Iwabuchi bt Marques/ Vanhoudt 3-6 6-3 7-5; Behr/ Ran bt Ondruska/ Richardson 3-6 7-6 7-3 6-4.