COIMBATORE, MARCH 11: Promising youngster Manoj Mahadevan of Tamil Nadu sent third seed Nitin Kirtane (Maharashtra) crashing out of the Gold Flake Aces tour tennis championship here today.In a quarterfinal match, Mahadevan beat Nitin 6-2, 3-6, 5-7 in a pulsating encounter.Rishi Sridhar (TN), who toppled top seed Vijay Kannan in a pre-quarter final match yesterday, found fifth seed Saurav Panja (WB) a tough nut to crack. Rishi conceded, complaining of blisters after losing the first set 1-6 and trailing 1-3 in the second.Fourth seed Sandeep Kirtane (Mah) stopped state mate Rohan Bopanna 6-1, 7-5 while second seed Vinod Sridhar (TN) put paid to the hopes of Jagdish Tanwar (Raj-seventh seed) 6-1, 6-4. Incidentally, Tanwar was the last player to make the quarter finals early this morning. He beat Vijendra Ladd (Mah) 6-2, 6-7 (8-10), 6-4.The Manoj-Kirtane match was a thriller all the way. Both of them engaged in long rallies and volleyed perfectly. The first two sets were shared. In the decider, games went on serve till 5-5 and Mahadevan nosed ahead, securing the crucial break in the 11th. In the 12th, Mahadevan was 0-30 down on serve before the talented Tamil Nadu boy got his act together. He hit a stream of forehand winners and when Nitin's backhand sailed long, it was all over.In the semi-final tomorrow, Mahadevan will take on Vinod Sridhar, while Saurav Panja will clash with Sandeep Kirtane.
