Barring Prahlad Srinath, who won the Mumbai leg and finished runner-up in Hyderabad, none of the other Indian singles player have made an impact on this circuit. In the third leg of the Wearhouse-sponsored tournament on the clay courts of Century Club, four Indians -- Sandeep Kirtane, cousin Nitin Kirtane, Harsh Mankad and Vinod Sridhar -- were on the verge of leaving their mark. But by the end of the day, all four vanished from the singles scene.

Mankad raised false hopes when he took the first set off Marian Leysek. But the Slovakian giant-killer, who had accounted for top seed and favourite Srinath, lifted the level of his game in the next two sets to walk off with a berth in the semifinal.

Earlier, on Court One, second seeded Federico Rovai of Sweden was too good for Sandeep Kirtane. Rovai, winner of the Hyderabad leg, has a solid all round game and did notgive Sandeep Kirtane even a whiff of a chance.

Games went with serves till the fifth game when Sandeep Kirtane was broken with ease. Sandeep Kirtane dropped the next service game too to lose the first set in just 30 minutes. Rovai, who had two aces in the first set, won the second set 6-2.

In the last quarter-final clash, Nitin Kirtane lost his way after running up a 4-1 lead and fell 5-7, 1-6 to Thailand's third seeded Danai Udomchoke. Nitin Kirtane broke the Thai player in the third and fifth games, but with Udomchoke finding the depth with his top spin drives, the Indian yielded ground.

Results

Singles (quarterfinals): Federico Rovai bt Sandeep Kirtane 6-2, 6-2; Johan Hede bt Vinod Sridhar 6-1, 6-1; Marian Leysek bt Harsh Mankad 4-6, 6-3, 6-2; Danai Udomchoke bt Nitin Kirtane 7-5, 6-1.

Doubles: Johan Hede/Zoltan Boroczky bt Vasudev Reddy/Niko Karagiannis 6-3, 6-4; Timo Nigri/Federico Rovai bt Mustafa Ghouse/Rishi Sridhar 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.