National grasscourt tennis: Ashwin scalps top seed Prashanth

Wild card Ashwin Vijayaraghavan from Andhra Pradesh continued his great run to shock top seed Tamil Nadu's Vijay Sundar Prashanth and storm into the semi-final of the national grasscourt tennis championship here Thursday.

Prashanth took the first set of the men's quarter-final outing 6-4 with a break of serve in the fourth game at the Calcutta South Club.

In the second, Prashanth was up 2-0 with an early break but Vijayaraghavan rallied back and stretched it to a tie-break, winning 7-4 to level the match.

The decider saw Vijayaraghavan break Prashanth in the fourth game and then hold serve to establish a 4-1 lead.

The two players held serve thereafter and Vijayaraghavan eventually won the set and match to set up a last four clash with Tamil Nadu boy and tournament's third seed Vishnu Vardhan who defeated Suraj Prabodh of Karnataka 6-3, 6-4.

Second seed Tamil Nadu's Jayaprakash Mohit Mayur will cross swords with fourth seed Chandril Sood of Uttar Pradesh in the other pre-summit clash.

In quarter-final exchanges, Mayur ousted veteran Maharashtra player and sixth seed Nitten Kirrtane 6-2, 6-3, while Sood prevailed over local boy Rupesh Roy 7-5, 4-6 and 6-3.

In the women's singles last eight round, unseeded Vaishnavi Peddi Reddy of Andhra Pradesh breezed past eight seed Nithyaraj Baburaj from Tamil Nadu 6-1, 6-0.

In the semi-final, Peddi Reddy will duel with seasoned campaigner Rushmi Chakravarthi who pipped fourth seed Sharmada Balu from Karnataka 2-6, 7-6(2), 7-5.

Andhra Pradesh girl Bhuvana Kalva - seeded fifth - upset third seed Nidhi Chilumula of the same state 6-3, 6-7(8), 6-4 and will meet Goa's Natasha Palha.

The second seeded Palha had little trouble in showing the door to sixth seed C. Sai Samitha of Tamil Nadu 6-3, 6-0.Men's Singles (QF)

Ashwin Vijayaraghavan (AP) bt Vijay Sundar Prashanth (TN)(1) 4-6,7-6(4),6-3

Vishnu Vardhan (TN)(3) bt Suraj Prabodh (KAR) 6-3,6-4

Chandril Sood (UP)(4) bt Rupesh Roy 7-5,4-6,6-3

Jayaprakash Mohit Mayur (TN)(2) bt Nitten Kirrtane (MAH)(6) 6-2,6-3

Women's Singles (QF)

Sri Vaishnavi Peddi Reddy (AP) bt Nithyaraj Baburaj (TN) 6-1,6-0

Rushmi Chakravarthi (TN)(7) bt Sharmada Balu (KAR)(4) 2-6,7-6(2),7-5

Bhuvana Kalva (AP)(5) bt Nidhi Chilumula (AP)(3) 6-3,6-7(8),6-4

Natasha Palha (GOA)(2) bt C. Sai Samitha (TN)(6) 6-3,6-0

--Indo-Asian News Serice

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