Chennai, Feb 17: India’s Sumit Nagal continued his good run in the Chennai Open ATP Challenger tournament, beating Jay Clarke of Great Britain 6-1, 6-4 on Friday to enter the singles semi-final here.
The world no.506 won the quarter-final in an hour and 22 minutes to set up a last four clash against American Nicolas Moreno De Alboran.
Alboran, who ousted top seed Chun-Hsin Tseng in the second round, got the better of Japan’s Yasutaka Uchiyama 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 25 minutes.
The Nagal-Clarke match saw the Indian dominate the first set completely.
Serving superbly, the 25-year-old Indian kept the British player off balance with precise hitting. He never faced a break point and landed 81 per cent of his first serves to pile the pressure on Clarke to break him thrice. In the second game, Nagal faced some challenge from Clarke but a single service break enabled him to grab the set and the match.
Meanwhile, Max Purcell beat the No.2 seed James Duckworth 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in a battle of Australians to set up a clash against compatriot Dane Sweeny in the semi-final.
In the doubles section, Sebastian Ofner and Nino Serdarusic shocked top seeds N Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Neduchezhiyan 4-6, 7-6, 10-4 in the semi-finals.
India’s Arjun Khade teamed up with Clarke to beat the Czech team of Petr Nouza and Andrew Paulson 7-5, 4-6, 10-8. (PTI)
