The tournament favourite from Delhi was upset by fifth seed Benjamin Xavier of Mumbai, winner at last week's National Ranking event held at Practennis here. Chaturvedi was ousted in the first round of that event.

Keeping pace with his top billing, Chaturvedi went one set up with the first 6-4. The second set was well fought, interspersed with baseline rallies. Benjamin eventually took the issue into the third set after scoring a close 7-5 win to equalise set scores.

In the decider, the local lad raced to a 3-0 lead to take an early initiative. Chaturvedi tried hard to justify his top billing but tired along the way as Benjamin booked his semi-final berth, with the third set score of 6-3. Second seed Sunil Kumar, Pratim Parikh (Mumbai) and Vinod Kumar Seva (WestBengal) were the others to make it to the penultimate stage.

Second seed T Yamini faced a tough time against a gritty Isha Lakhani as she booked her semi-final berth after a three-set duel.

After failing to score a single point in the first set, it was a remarkable recovery by Yamini as she survived two match points to take the next two sets -- 7-6, 6-4.

Results

Boys' under-16 (quarter-finals): 5-Benjamin Xavier bt 1-Parantap Chaturvedi 4-6, 7-5, 6-3; 4-Pratim Parikh bt Shivang Mishra 6-1, 6-3; 3-Vinod Kumar Seva bt Alok Bhide 6-1, 1-0 (match conceded); 2-Sunil Kumar bt P Ravikrishna 6-4, 7-5.

Under-14: 1-Amanjyot Singh bt 7-Ankit Doshi 6-1, 6-2; 3-Nishang Mishra bt 8-Arif Hyder 6-3, 6-3; 4-Rohan Gajjar bt 6-AR Anandkumar 7-5, 6-3; Saurav Sukul w/o R Arun Prakash Girls Under-16: 1-Sonal Phadke bt 5-Megha Vakharia 6-1, 7-6; 4-Jitisha Shelarkha bt Anisa Shelar 6-1, 2-6, 6-0; 3-Liza Pereira bt Y Laxmi Reddy 4-6, 6-4, 6-2; 2-T Yamini bt 7-Isha Lakhani 0-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

U-14:1-Megha Vakharia bt 5-Preeti Rao 6-3. 6-0; Johann Fernandes bt 8-Sana Bhambhri 6-4, 3-0 (conceded); V Nivedita bt 4-Lata Asudani 6-3, 6-0.State Ranking Men's (Pre-quarterfinals): Chetan Desai bt 1-Brendon D'Souza 9-5; Ravi Krishna bt Anish Manrai 9-1; Sangram Cahpekar bt Shyam gala 9-1; Dipesh Rao bt Dashrat Salvi 9-3; Pratim Parikh bt Krishna Mohan 9-2; Anand Sitaram 9-8 (7-5); Ravi Bhaya bt Israq Gulrays 8-2; Nilesh Saldanha bt Benjamin avier 9-7.

Womens (QF): Sonia Shelar bt Sonia Gomes 6-1, 6-0; Lisa Perreira bt Laxmi Reddy 6-3, 6-2; Jitisha Shelarkha bt Anisa Shelar 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.