Kunal Anand was at his fighting best as he got past former National champion and third seed Mohit Mayur in the quarterfinals of the $5000 Asian Tennis Tour event at the DLTA Complex here on Friday.
On a hot day, when the successful players had to negotiate two rounds, the 23-year-old Anand kept improving as the match progressed. He led 4-6, 6-4, 3-1 when Mohit Mayur, facing two breakpoints in the fifth game, retired.
Mohit Mayur had called the physiotherapist earlier to attend to his back and shoulder. “I have not played a match since February in Mumbai. So, it was tough to play two singles matches in a day,” he said.
Mohit had handled a tricky customer, the national junior champion B.R. Nikshep in the first round in a draw of 16, and had pulled through after a shaky start. Nikshep had a wild card into the qualifying event of the ITF Futures in Chandigarh, and thus could not afford to play his best. He was actually worried whether he had to rush to Chandigarh by evening to sign for the event.
Anand himself had tackled a rough first round against Suraj Prabodh when he bounced back from losing the first set.
Anand will play Jayesh Pungliya in the semifinals. Pungliya played five sets in all, in getting past qualifier Jatin Dahiya and lucky-loser Abhishek Gaur, who had capitalised on the absence of second seed Vijay Sundar Prashanth, to gather precious money.
The champion of the first event, Vishnu Vardhan was in a spot of bother as he strained his back in the second set against Sri Lankan wild card entrant, Sharmal Dissanayake. However, after medical attention and cautious resumption when he did not put his first serves into play for a while, Vishnu was at his fluent best in setting up a semifinal against Niki Poonacha.
Vishnu tamed the Cambodian wild card Kenny Bun.
Niki Poonacha did his confidence a world of good by getting past fourth seed and another national champion V.M. Ranjeet and the talented young man, Adil Kalyanpur.
The results: Singles: Quarterfinals: Vishnu Vardhan bt Kenny Bun (Cam) 6-1, 6-4; Niki Poonacha bt Adil Kalyanpur 6-3, 7-6(4); Kunal Anand bt Mohit Mayur 4-6, 6-4, 3-1 (retired); Jayesh Pungliya bt Abhishek Gaur 7-5, 6-4. Pre-quarterfinals: Vishnu Vardhan bt Sharmal Dissanayake (Sri) 6-3, 6-4; Kenny Bun bt Lakshit Sood 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-2; Niki Poonacha bt V.M. Ranjeet 4-6, 6-3, 3-1 (retired); Adil Kalyanpur bt Rahul Sadhwani 6-0, 6-4; Kunal Anand bt Suraj Prabodh 4-6, 6-2, 6-3; Mohit Mayur bt B.R. Nikshep 6-3, 6-2; Jayesh Pungliya bt Jatin Dahiya 6-1, 6-7(9), 6-4; Abhishek Gaur bt Siddharth Vishwakarma 6-2, 6-2.
