Punna Vishal bounced back from a first set deficit to oust third seed Matwe Middelkoop of The Netherlands 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the second round of the US $10,000 ITF Futures men's tennis tournament in Delhi on Wednesday.
The match was heading towards a victory for the Dutch player after he went up a break and 3-2 in the second set, but the momentum swung drastically after Vishal broke back in the next game.
The temperamental Middelkoop, who kept his volatile temperament in check till things went his way, then blew it all up, screaming and yelling at the chair umpire and ball boys.
In fact, one felt the umpire was too lenient with the visiting player as he did not warn Middelkoop even when he flung his racquet well beyond the opponent's court.
But another Dutch player, Melvyn Op der Heijde, snuffed out the challenge of 18-year-old Somdev Dev Varman, winning 6-4, 6-2.
The two top seeds, Harsh Mankad and Aisam Qureshi, stayed on course for an Indo-Pak final.
The former advanced after his opponent Naim Lalji of Great Britain retired hurt when trailing 4-6, 1-2 due to a shoulder strain.
Qureshi's was yet another solid performance in which he slammed 10 aces to down Mikhail Ledovskikh of Russia 6-3, 6-2.
There were some loose points from the title winner at Dehra Dun and Thailand in the preceding weeks, but the Pakistani said, "That is the way I play. When I am leading, I try to be more aggressive and naturally miss some points."
Another player to retire due to injury was fourth seed Vijay Kannan, who was level a set each at 4-6, 6-3 against Vinod Sridhar before he conceded the match.
Fifth seed Sunil Kumar Sipaeya made short work of last week's finalist Briton Nicky Crawley, winning 6-0, 6-2.
In the evening, Qureshi and Mankad came together to tame young bulls Karan Rastogi and Somdev Dev Varman 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.
The two youngsters took the first set by attacking an off-colour Mankad, who was miserable with his net play today. But Qureshi took control of the match and single-handedly turned things around with his experience and class in the second set.
The decider saw Mankad too regaining his rhythm as the duo went 5-0 up.
There was a minor hiccup for the top seeds when the Pakistani lost serve to allow their teenage opponents narrow the gap to 2-5. Karan and Somdev went on to force three break-points on Mankad's serve but the seniors stepped on the gas to close out on the match.
