Kannan, Goutham sent packing

The form book was thrown out of the window as the defending men's champion Vijay Kannan and women's top seed Sheetal Goutham were ousted in the quarter-finals of the DSCL National Open tennis championships in Delhi on Thursday.

It was Vinod Sridhar who accounted for the scalp of Kannan. He won 6-4, 6-1 to set up a semi-final meeting with Somdev K Verman, who defeated Kamal Kannan 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

For Shruti Dhawan it was sweet revenge for her two consecutive defeats to Sheetal in the finals of the women's circuit tournaments in June. She won 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.

Fourth seed Mustafa Ghouse, despite a scratchy game, managed to hold out against National Games winner Ajay Ramaswamy 6-3, 6-3. Ghouse will meet the wily left-handed Nitin Kirtane, who drubbed Kedar Tembe 6-4, 6-1.

Fourth seed Ankita Bhambri lived upto her reputation as she blasted non-stop winners to romp into the last-four stage with a 6-3, 6-0 victory against Geeta Manohar.

Isha Lakhani had the double delight of progressing into the semi-finals of both the girls' and women's sections. Top seeded in the girls' section, Isha scored a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Icri Rai in the morning and then overcame women's second seed Radhika Tulpule in an intese 6-3, 6-7(3/7), 6-1 battle.

It was Radhika's erratic form that made the contest somewhat less absorbing although her graceful game did pose a considerable challenge to Isha.