Nine Indian boxers in Asian C'ship semis

Thapa (54kg), a gold medallist from the prestigious Hyder Aliyev Cup last year, lost to local favourite Ehsan Sepahvand 0-6.

But that was to be the only setback for the Indian team as Venkat Giddi Nagarjun edged past Afshin Albandi 2-1 in the 57kg category.Harpal Singh (64kg) then got the better of China's Jhamin Wu 7-2 before Sumit Sangwan (75kg) outpunched Uzbek Hasanov Mirzobek 8-0.

Earlier, Devendro Singh (48kg), Srinivas Surbetti (51kg), and Vikas Kishan (60kg) won their quarterfinal bouts on Sunday.In addition, Naveen Kumar (81kg) had booked a semifinal berth after winning his bout on the opening day of the competition. Manoj Kumar (91kg) and Rajat Kaliraman (+91kg) got byes and moved directly into semifinals.
All the semifinals are scheduled to be held on Tuesday.