Cerovic upsets Mazur

Cerovic upsets Mazur
Agencies

Bangalore, January 25: Ivan Cerovic of Croatia ousted eighth seed Dmitri Mazur (Uzbekistan) 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 and entered the singles semi-final of the ITF Futures Tennis championship here today. The Croat won the first set easily but lost the second, after encountering stiff resistance from Mazur.

The final set witnessed an absorbing battle between cerovic and Mazur with each winning three games. Cerovic, however, returned to form and managed to win to set up a semi-final encounter with sixth seed Juran Hasko (Svk).

Hasko fought back after being down by a set, to defeat James Auckland (GB) 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, in another quarterfinal. Second seeded Martin Spottl of Austria, after some anxious moments, managed to quell Kokurin Anton (Uzb) 6-3 7-6 (9-7).

In the semifinal, Spottl will meet fourth seed Rik Devoest (RSA) who trounced Hendri-Susilo Pramono (Indonesia) 6-2, 6-2. De Voest, who had ousted the lone Indian survivor Vishal Uppal in the second round yesterday, had no difficulty in beating Pramono. De Voest did not give time to Pramono to settle down and went on breaking his service to win the match 6-2, 6-2.

Juraj Hasko, after losing the first game (4-6), bounced back and played an aggressive game to win the second game which went into a tie-breaker (7-6 (7-3) and the third to win the third set (6-3).