Teenager Somdev Varman created a sensation by upsetting top seeded Bulgarian Todor Enev while compatriot Vinod Sridhar got past Japanese youngster Noriaku Sugiyama to romp into the semi-finals of the ONGC ITF Futures tennis tournament in Kolkata on Friday.
Somdev, a wild card entrant who had stunned sixth seed Febi Widhiyanto of Indonesia in the quarter-finals, displayed exceptional maturity and high fitness to pull off a 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) victory against the top seed at the Saturday Club.
Starting with a bang, the former national junior champion broke the Bulgarian's serve in the very first game and maintained his lead to notch up an easy win in the first set.
Todor, having a world ranking of 287, struggled to adapt to the hot climatic conditions and lost the second set in the tie-breaker to lose the match in an hour and 26 minutes.
Somdev will take on French clay-court specialist Jordanne Doble, who made short work of Austrian Rainer Eitzinger 6-4, 6-3 in another quarter-final.
The other Indian challenger, Vinod Sridhar, staged a great comeback after losing the opening set 2-6 against his Japanese rival.
The 25-year-old looked down and out but dug deep into his reserves to level the match, winning the next set 6-2 before unleashing his devastating forehand to destroy his opponent in the final set (6-2).
Sridhar will face Bulgarian Yordan Kanev, who scored a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Austrian Markus Egger, in the semi-final tomorrow.
In the doubles segment, the Indian pair Mustafa Ghouse and Vishal Uppal found themselves lucky to get a ticket for the final as their opponents Maamoun and Tereshuk left the match midway due to medical reasons.
Ghouse and Uppal lost the first set 3-6 and were leading 1-0 in the second when the match was called off.
The other Indian duo of Ajay Ramaswami and Sunil Sipeya, however, bowed out in the semi-final, losing to Todor Enev and Yordan Kanev 4-6, 6-4, 4-6.
