Chennai Open | Gomez sets up a semifinal clash with Simakin

It has been smooth sailing for Argentine Federico Agustin Gomez as he eased past Kazakhstan’s Denis Yevseyev 6-3, 6-4 in a round-of-eight match for his third straight-win in the Chennai Open ATP Challenger at the SDAT Tennis Stadium here on Friday.

The lanky 29-year-old, a four-time ATP Challenger Tour singles champion, didn’t drop serve in the match and broke his opponent’s delivery to advance to a semifinal against fourth seed Ilia Simakin.

Simakin had to fight hard to overcome the challenge of the big-serving Petr Bar Biryukov in three sets.

The other semifinal will feature sixth seed Frederico Ferreira Silva of Portugal and unseeded Pole Maks Kasnikowski, who posted contrasting victories. Both Silva and Kasnikowski, though, won in straight sets.

The doubles saw top seeds Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha and his Thai partner Pruchya Isaro set up a final showdown against the unseeded duo of Mukund Sasikumar and Jay Clarke.

The results: Singles (quarterfinals): Federico Agustin Gomez (Arg) bt Denis Yevseyev (Kaz) 6-3, 6-4; Ilia Simakin bt Petr Bar Biryukov 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-5; Frederico Ferreira Silva (Por) bt Ioannis Xilas (Gre) 6-2, 6-4; Maks Kasnikowski (Pol) bt Luca Castelnuovo (Sui) 6-3, 7-6(5).

Doubles (semifinals): Pruchya Isaro (Tha) & Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha bt S.D. Prajwal Dev & Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-4, 6-1; Jay Clarke (GBr) & Mukund Sasikumar bt Felix Gill & Alastair Gray (GBr) 7-6(7), 4-6, [13-11].