Chennai, Jan 3 (Inditop.com) Prakash Amritraj and Yuki Bhambri survived difficult matches to advance to the final round of the qualifying tournament of the $400,000 ATP Aircel Chennai Open tennis tournament here Sunday.
Amritraj dropped the first set, but recovered well to beat Peter Polansky of Canada 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (9) in two hours, 31 minutes while 17-year old Bhambri came through a first set tie-break and overcame Ilya Marchenko of Ukraine 7-6 (2), 6-3 in a match that lasted nearly two hours.
Amritraj will next meet Lars Poerschke while Bhambri faces Louk Sorensen in their respective final qualifying matches Monday.
The winners of the other two qualifying matches, also scheduled Monday, Dustin Brown vs Tsung-Hua Yang and James Ward vs Noam Okun will also progress to the main draw of the tournament.
The results (qualifying):
Second round: Yuki Bhambri (India) bt Ilya Marchenko (Ukraine) 7-6 (2), 6-3; Prakash Amritraj (India) bt Peter Polansky (Canada) 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (9); Louk Sorensen (Ireland) bt Donald Young (US) 7-6 (4), 7-6 (8); Lars Poerschke (Germany) bt Rik de Voest (South Africa) 4-6, 6-3, 7-5; Dustin Brown (Jamaica) bt Jan Minar (Czech Republic) 6-4, 6-4; Tsung-Hua Yang (Taipei) bt Riccardo Ghedin (Italy) 6-3, 6-4; James Ward (Britain) bt Marsel Ilhan (Turkey) 3-6, 6-2, 6-4; Noam Okun (Israel) bt Tatsuma Ito (Japan) 6-2, 6-2.
rounak