Indianapolis (Indiana), July 24 (DPA) Unfancied US outsiders stunned a pair of seeds at the weather-plagued Indianapolis Tennis Championships before the rain that had wrecked the programme 24 hours earlier returned Thursday.
An earlier start to make up for unplayed matches proved fruitful for qualifier and recent injury victim Alex Bogomolov, who put out out Israeli second seed Dudi Sela 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).
It was another Cinderella story for Wayne Odesnik, who staged a comeback to eliminate Russian number four Igor Kunitsyn 2-6, 6-1, 6-1.
Frenchman Marc Gicquel maintained the status quo at the first event on the summer hard-court run to the US Open, as he beat a qualifier, in US player Jesse Levine 6-2, 6-2.
A late first-round match, which was to have been played Wednesday, was finally completed as Brazilian Marcos Daniel beat 2005 finalist Taylor Dent of the US 6-2, 6-4.
Bogomolov will be playing in only the second quarter-final of his career, five years after the first.
The 26-year-old only returned in May after wrist surgery in January and has limited ATP experience with a ranking of 158. Sela helped Israel into an unprecedented Davis Cup semi-final this month in a victory over Russia.
Bogomolov said that perhaps he picked up a few tips on Sela’s game, during their ping-pong games a day earlier to kill time during a total washout of play.
“I served well and wasn’t broken once. The pressure was on him to hold,” said the American. “But I still had to dig it out in the tiebreaker. It was tough to close out the match. I haven’t had many chances to do that lately.”
Bogomolov will face the winner from American Robby Ginepri, the 2005 champion, and Argentine Eduardo Schwank.
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