Sakamoto to face Crawford in semis

Second seed Rei Sakamoto of Japan battled past 18-year-old Italian Federico Cina 6-7(7), 6-3, 6-2 in the men’s singles quarterfinals of the Delhi Open here on Friday.

Sakamoto, 19, lost the tie-breaker in the first set, but grew in confidence against the fellow teenager from Palermo as the match progressed.

He will face fifth seed Oliver Crawford in the semifinal on Saturday. Crawford emerged victorious in a battle of Brits, beating third seed Jay Clarke 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. In the other last-four clash, two unseeded players, Great Britain’s Felix Gill and Greece’s Stefanos Sakellaridis, will be pitted against each other.

While the Indian challenge in the singles ended on Thursday after Sumit Nagal went down to Cina, the men’s doubles competition still retains local interest. In the quarterfinals on Friday, India’s Siddhant Banthia and Bulgaria’s Alexander Donski prevailed over the all-Indian pair of Divij Sharan and Karan Singh 6-3, 6-4. Niki Poonacha and Thailand’s Pruchya Isaro also progressed to the semifinals after getting the better of Luca Castelnuovo and Rio Noguchi 6-2, 6-2.

The results: Singles: Quarterfinals: Rei Sakamoto (Jpn) bt Federico Cina (Ita) 6-7(7), 6-3, 6-2; Oliver Crawford (GBr) bt Jay Clarke (GBr) 3-6, 7-5, 6-3; Stefanos Sakellaridis (Gre) bt Rio Noguchi (Jpn) 6-0, 6-3; Felix Gill (GBr) bt Michael Geerts (Bel) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Doubles: Quarterfinals: Siddhant Banthia (Ind) & Alexander Donski (Bul) bt Divij Sharan (Ind) & Karan Singh (Ind) 6-3, 6-4; Pruchya Isaro (Tha) & Niki Poonacha (Ind) bt Luca Castelnuovo (Sui) & Rio Noguchi (Jpn) 6-2, 6-2; Ji-sung Nam (Kor) & Patrik Niklas-Salminen (Fin) bt Saketh Myneni (Ind) & Digvijay Pratap Singh (Ind) 6-3, 6-4; Jay Clarke (GBr) & Michael Geerts (Bel) bt Tsung-hao Huang (Tpe) & Uisung Park (Kor) 7-5, 3-6, 10-5.