H Basantakumar Memorial TennisH Bushan sees off H Shanker, to meet Borthakur in semis

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Aug 7 : Haobam Bushan defeated Heisnam Shanker in an all-Manipuri quarterfinal clash to set up semi-final date with West Bengal's Borthakur Abhinansu in the ongoing Heisnam Basantakumar Memorial Tennis Championship at IDTA Tennis Complex, Lamphel.
Bushan registered a hard-fought 7-5, 6-4 in the first quarterfinal match this morning to book his semi-final ticket. Bushan will play Borthakur, who outlasted Nishith Rahane of Maharashtra  6-2, 6-4 in the last quarterfinal match today, in the last-4 round.
In the second quarterfinal match, Suresh Keerthivassan of Tamil Nadu got the better of compatriot Jaya Prakash who had to retire in the second set as he trailed 0-2 after conceding the first set 4-6.
Suresh will play Pratush Mohanty of Odisha in the semi-final. Pratush made it to the semi-final with a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 win over Sarthak Gulati of Punjab in the third quarterfinal match.
The day also saw Manipur's pair of Bushan and Bhicky cruise into the semifinals.
Bushan and Bhicky, who registered a 6-2, 6-3 win over H Shanker and H Becker in an all-Manipuri first round clash, overcame the Telangana-Tamil Nadu pair of Yagnesh and Rakshak 6-4, 6-4 in the first quarterfinal match.
The Tamil Nadu-Assam pair of Jayaprakash and Sheikh Iftikhar Mohammad also pulled off a 6-2, 6-3 quarterfinal win over Telangana's Hitesh Yalamanchili and Devaharshit Neelam to set up a semi-final date with Bushan and Bhicky.
Earlier in the opening round, Jayaprakash and Iftikhar defeated WB-Odisha duo of Aritro Ghosh and Aiswajit Saha 6-1, 6-2.
In other first round matches, the Nagaland-Maharashtra pair of Vilasier Khate and Manvir Singh Randhawa registered a 6-2, 6-1 win over WB-Manipur pair of Ratul Mahata and Toijam Brojen; Maharashtra-WB pair of Achintya Verma and Arunava Majumdar won 6-2, 4-6, 10-8 over AP pair of Madduri Ashok and Gurram Raghunandan; Karnataka-Assam pair of Ganesh and Deka outlasted Maharashtra duo of Nishith Rahane and Pranav Gadgil; Odisha pair of Pratush Mohanty and Debasis Sahoo overcame Chavan Saksham and Manvir Singh Randhawa 6-2, 7-6 (7-2).