Prakash sails into quarterfinals

New Delhi: Prakash Amritraj rode on his fine form to make the quarterfinals of the $75,000 Challenger tennis tournament at Aptos, California. The 204th ranked Prakash defeated wild card Philip Simonds of the U.S. 6-4, 6-2 in the pre-quarterfinals after having upset the top-seeded Amer Delic of the US 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in the first round in a match that was spread over two days. In doubles, however, the 24-year-old Prakash in partnership with Lester Cook of US lost in the quarterfinals 7-6(3), 4-6, 5-10 to Noam Okun and Amir Weintraub of Israel. The Indo-US pair had earlier beaten Roman Borvanov of the US and Artem Sitak of Russia 6-3, 6-1 in the first round. In the 30,000 Euros Challenger tournament on grass in Manchester, Harsh Mankad and Ashutosh Singh made the doubles semifinals with a 6-1, 6-1 triumph over Pavel Snobel and... [read full story]