National hard-court champion Ashutosh Singh beat compatriot Rupesh Roy 6-4, 6-3 to enter the semifinals of the ITF Men's Futures Bellary Open 2007 at the Police Gymkhana courts here on Thursday.

Roy made a strong start, racing to a 2-0 lead, but that was all he could manage as it was Ashutosh all the way after that in the match played at court four that never rose beyond mediocre. Roy, looked a pale shadow of the player who had staged a memorable comeback win the previous day, committed too many unforced errors. His temper too let him down as he was upset with some line calls. He vent his anger on his racket that didn't go well with the chair umpire.

At  the other end, Ashutosh was as cool as cucumber with most of his backhand returns being bang on target. After the initial flurry, Roy's challenge fizzled out and it was only in the seventh game he really had any chance of a break. Down 15-40, Ashutosh came back with a couple of  good shots to hold the serve and broke Roy in the next to gain upperhand.

Superior opponent

After taking the first set 6-4, Ashutosh didn't want to take any chance and broke Roy in the very first game of the second set. Rupesh is known for his comeback wins, with him already having staged two of those in this tournament. But this was another day and a different opponent as he had no answer to Ashutosh's guiles.

Roy had a chance to draw level with Ashutosh in the fourth game, but his returns let him down. Finally, with the score reading 5-3 in favour of Ashutosh, Roy was under pressure to hold his serve. Though he went 15-0 up, Ashutosh took the next four points in a jiffy to wind up the proceedings.

In the semifinals, Ashutosh will take on Austrian third seed Rainer Eitzinger who breezed past Israels' fifth seed Dekel Valtzer 7-5, 6-3.

Ashutosh will have to play Eitzinger twice on the morrow after entering the doubles finals along with Vivek Shokeen. Eitzinger and fellow Austrian Philipp Oswald beat the Indian duo of Vijay Sundar Prasanth and Ranjeet V Murugesan 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 10-6 while the Ashutosh-Shokeen pair battled past Vijay Kannan and Alexey Kedryuk 6-7 (7-9), 6-2, 10-5.

In the other singles semifinal, big serving Croatian Ivan Cerovic will take on Austria's Philipp Oswald. The left-handed Cerovic drubbed Serbia's Robert Belak 6-3, 6-0, while Oswald upset sixth seed Serbian Darko Madjarovski 6-4, 7-6 (7-2).

Results (prefix denotes seedings, Indians unless mentioned):

Singles, quarterfinals: Ashu-tosh Singh bt Rupesh Roy 6-4, 6-3; 3-Rainer Eitzinger (Aut) bt 5-Dekel Valtzer (Isr) 7-5, 6-3; Philipp Oswald (Aut) bt 6-Darko Madjarovski (Ser) 6-4, 7-6 (7-2); 4-Ivan Cerovic (Cro) bt Robert Belak (Ser) 6-3, 6-0.

Doubles, semifinals: Ashutosh Singh/ Vivek Shokeen bt 3-Vijay Kannan/ Alexey Kedryuk (Kaz) 6-7 (7-9), 6-2, 10-5; 2-Rainer Eitzin-ger/ Philipp Oswald (Aut) bt Vijay Sundar Prasanth/ Ranjeet V Murugesan 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 10-6.