Top seed Lu in the semi-finals of SAIL Open

New Delhi News.Net
Thursday 15th May, 2008 (IANS)

Top seed Lu Yen-hsun of Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) swept aside Australian Colin Ebelthite to storm into the semi-finals of the $50,000 SAIL Open ATP challenger at the DLTA complex here Thursday.

Ebelthite was no match for the World no.90 Taiwanese who registered an easy 6-1,6-4 victory over the Australian who Wednesday thrashed the lone Indian hope Ashutosh Singh in straight sets.
Yen-hsun next faces fourth seed Japanese Go Soeda who beat wildcard Mohammed Ghareeb 7-5,7-5.
Ghareeb, with his big serve and stroke variation, kept Soeda on the toes, but it was the Japanese who snapped crucial breaks in both the sets.
In other quarterfinal, Dane Kristian Pless came from behind to register a hard-fought 2-6,7-5, 7-5 victory over Alex Bogdanovic of Britain. An error-prone Pless struggled with his forehand in particular as he sprayed ball all over the court in the first set.
Just when it looked Bogdanovic will close the match in straight sets, breaking Pless in tenth game of the second set to make it five-all, the Dane broke back as the Briton double-faulted. Pless won the next game to force a third set.
In the decider, Pless was the dominant player, playing with confidence and hitting fluently down the line. His aggressive play forced Bagdanovic to go on the defensive. Still, it was not all that easy for the Dane to take the set.
Pless now meets American Brendan Evans who outplayed Australian Samuel Groth 7-6,6-4 to enter the semifinal after making couple of first round exits in the challengers before coming here.

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