No ITF future for Indians

Bangalore, January 24: The Indian challenge in the singles event of the ITF Menacirc;euro;trade;s Futures Tennis Tournament ended with Vishal Uppal going down to fourth seed South African Rik De Voest in the pre-quarters here on Wednesday.

De Voest was in superb form as he sidelined the lone Indian survivor 6-3, 6-2 in no time on his way to the quarter-finals. The day saw two upsets with third seed Suwandi Suwandi of Indonesia and seventh seeded Donavan September RSA being knocked out by unseeded opponents in contrasting styles. Suwandi gave a stiff fight before Britainacirc;euro;trade;s James Auckland prevailed at 4-6, 7-6 8-6, 6-4, while Indonesian Hendri-Susilo Pramono beat September 6-2, 6-0.

The other seeds in action today, second seeded Austrian Martin Spottl, sixth seeded Juraj Hasko of Slovakia and eighth seeded Dmitri Mazur of Uzbekistan, all made it to the last eight. Mazur booked his berth, drubbing Germanyacirc;euro;trade;s Denis Gremelmayr 6-1, 6-1.