Somdev charges into semis,Rastogi goes down fighting

The incident happened when Somdev was up 3-0 in the second set after having wrapped up the first with the help of two breaks of serve in 50 minutes. He was down 0-40 on his serve when he hit an easy overhead kill only to see the umpire ask for a replay of the point.

The umpire wanted the point to be replayed as even before the winning shot had been essayed by the Indian player,a ball boy rolled a ball on to the court.

Miffed Somdev argued with the chair official,forced Shu on to the court before it was finally decided to replay the point and the Indian dropped the serve promptly.

The Tripura lad later slammed the incident and said he had never been involved in any such case. 8220;I don8217;t know whether it the ball boy8217;s action as his opponent was a Chinese was deliberate or not. I had an easy put-away and I thought I had won the point only for it to be replayed. I felt pretty crappy,8221; he said after his victory.

8220;I was pretty upset but I told myself to move on and I won. Never before such a thing has happened to me,8221; he added.

An incident favouring Rastogi,for which he praised top seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan,happened on the same day but on court 2.

Rastogi,who fought bravely and then went down to his 44th ranked ATP rival in two hours and six minutes 2-6 6-4 5-7 was down match point in the third set when a forehand winner that he thought was in was called out by the linesman.

But Istomin,in a gesture of grand sportsmanship,said the ball was good and Rastogi went on to hold serve,break back for 4-5 and leveled at 5-5 by holding serve before conceding the set and the match by dropping the 12th serve game.

8220;It was commendable of him to do that,8221; said Rastogi about the fine show of sportsman spirit showed by his Uzbek rival.

In the Somdev-Zhang clash,the Indian made a lot of unforced errors which were repaid by his rival. Somdev committed three forehand errors and was broken by his rival but came storming back by breaking back in the seventh.

Somdev broke again to lead 5-4 when Zhang hit his forehand into the net. The Indian made a rare approach to the net to put away a volley in the next game to lead 40-15 when serving for the set and then held serve and clinched it when his rival8217;s return of serve was long.

Somdev was quickly up 3-0 when his rival took a medical break to attend to his calf muscle. Then followed the incident involving the ball boy to upset the second seed8217;s composure that helped his rival retrieve a service break in the fourth game.

But Somdev broke Zhang again in the seventh game to take a 5-2 lead and held two match points when he was broken again 5-3.

However,he held his composure after his rival played a good service game to hold serve at 15 with a back-hand pass.

8220;The guy started off well and I was 1-4 down. I blame myself for that. At 5-2 up in the final set I played a crappy game. He played a great service game and I am glad I came out and played a good service game in return and held serve,8221; he said.

He said it did not matter who he played next as both his likely opponents,Danai Udamchoke of Thailand,seeded ninth,and fourth seed Tatsuma Ito of Japan were strong players and it would be a big challenge to reach the final by beating any one of them.

Rastogi was overwhelmed in the opening set against Istomin who broke his serve twice in the sixth and eighth games and grabbed the set 6-2 in only 24 minutes.

But an unnerved and determined Rastogi,ranked far below his opponent,bravely fought his way back to win the second after a 43-minute battle 6-4 by breaking his rival8217;s serve in the ninth game and then holding his own delivery.

The duo traded two service breaks in the final set which lasted just under an hour before Istomin broke Rastogi decisively in the 12th to run out victor.

8220;It was a good effort on my part to take the top seed to three sets but at the end of the day I lost. I was always playing catch-up in the match which is not an easy thing to do against the top seed and world no. 44.

8220;I now have a break of one month before the Chennai Open in January,2011. I will use it to do some good work on my tennis,8221; he added.