Ashutosh Singh halted Yuki Bhambri’s dream run and Prajnesh Gunneswaran ousted Navdeep Singh to advance to the men’s singles final of the DSCL Open National tennis championships here on Thursday.
Second seed Ashutosh outsmarted Yuki 6-2, 6-3, while Prajnesh clinched a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win over Navdeep at DLTA complex.

Ashutosh served big and sent some good returns which did not allow Yuki to play long rallies. The 15-year-old giant-killer was not his usual attacking self as Ashutosh kept him under pressure throughout.

Yuki double-faulted to drop his serve, giving the second seed a 2-0 lead in the first set.

Yuki had a break point in the next game but failed to convert and the experienced Ashutosh kept the young kid on the left corner of the court before slamming a backhand winner on his right to put off the danger.
They held their serves in the next five games before Ashutosh cashed in on break-points offered by Yuki in the eighth game to take the first set comfortably.

Marginal error
The second set saw both the players holding their serves for the first seven games and a marginal error coupled with unforced errors by Bhambri was enough for Asuthosh to break him in the eighth game and go up 5-3.
Ashutosh fired his seventh ace of the game while being up 40-30 to stop Yuki’s brilliant run in the Nationals.
After entering the boys under-18 semifinals beating Abhijeet Tiwari 6-3, 6-2, left-handed Prajnesh made a hat-trick of beating seeded player as he went past eighth seed Navdeep Singh to enter the men’s singles final.
Prajnesh is to clash with Vijayant Mailk, who easily over-powered Ronak Manuja 6-0 6-3 in the other U-18 semifinals.

The women’s singles final will be played between top-seed Isha Lakahni and second seed Rushmi Chakravarthy, who won their semifinal matches without breaking much sweat. While Lakhani beat third seed Sanaa Bhambri 6-2, 6-2, Chakravarthy got the better of fourth seed Sonal Phadke 6-4, 6-1.