Tennis: Gakhov puts out Myneni

Fifth seeded Ivan Gakhov of Russia once again demonstrated fluent serving and stroke play to get past top seed Saket Myneni 6-3, 7-6(1), en route to the semi-finals of the MCC-S.R.Subramaniam Memorial ITF Men's Futures tennis tournament here on Thursday.

Myneni had played only two clay court tournaments in the last 10 years since he won the junior U-18 National title at the same venue. Though the first set was extended, the winner was never in doubt.

Gakhov looked comfortable, was full of poise and moved around the court with effortless ease to be the dominant player. Myneni on the other hand did serve his quota of aces, but his ground strokes were astray leading to a number of unforced errors.

This made Gakhov's job easier in the second set and the Russian sailed through to the semi-finals where he will clash with Ranjeeth Virali-Murugesan who put out Swiss Antoine Michele Alexeev 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

In the other semi-final, fourth seeded Vijay Sundar Prashanth who beat M Descotte of Argentina 6-1, 6-0, will take on second seed N Sriram Balaji who overcame No.8 Yannick Thivant of France 4-6, 6-4, 2-1 (Retd).

The results (quarter-finals): 7-Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan bt 6-Alexeev Antoine-Michel (Sui) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; 4-Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt M Descotte (Arg) 6-1, 6-0; 2-N Sriram Balaji bt 8-Yannick Thivant (Fra) 4-6, 6-4, 2-1 Retd; 5-Ivan Gakhov (Rus) bt 1-Saketh Myneni 6-3, 7-6(1).