Bopanna on course; Kannan knocked out

Top seed Rohan Bopanna stayed on course for back-to-back circuit titles, but second seed Vijay Kannan was shown the door in the second leg of the ITF men's circuit tennis tournament in Gurgaon on Thursday.

Bopanna, who is concentrating on earning valuable ranking points so that he can qualify for the US Open later in the year, got his rhythm from the start and thrashed qualifier Shivang Mishra 6-1, 6-2 in an hour and three minutes while Ireland's Peter Clarke got the better of Kannan 6-4, 6-3 in the quarter-finals.

Bopanna never looked under any sort of trouble as he won the first five games with relative ease and pocketed the opening set in just 28 minutes at the National Tennis Academy complex.

Mishra, who had accounted for eighth seed Ravishankar Pathanjali in the first round, broke his more fancied opponent at the beginning of the second set and stayed with his opponent till 2-2.

But Bopanna took the next four games with ease to set up a semi-final clash with third seed Vinod Sridhar, who defeated seventh seed Jaco Mathews 6-1, 6-3.

In the other quarterfinal, Kannan, who had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat on Wednesday against wild card Naveep Singh, could not show the same resilience today and went down to Clarke in just under an hour and half.

Both players found holding their serves a bit difficult as Kannan lost his thrice while his opponent twice in the opening set.

The second set was much better in terms of serves but the Irishman, who is coming back from injury, held on to the sole break he earned in the second game to pocket the set and the match.

Clarke will now meet fifth seed Stephen Mitchell of South Africa, who beat qualifier Dmitri Makeev of Kazaksthan 6-2, 7-6 (10/8), for a place in the summit round.

The match between Sridhar and Mathews was expected to be a close affair as both players knew each other's game pretty well but the third seed was in no mood to give his opponent any chance.

Sridhar broke Mathews in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead and never looked back before taking the first set.

A lapse in concentration on the part of Sridhar helped Mathews come back into the match as he easily held serve till 3-3.

However, that much resistance he could offer as Sridhar took the next three games and the match.