Prakash, Yuki advance to final qualifying round

Chennai: Prakash Amritraj and Yuki Bhambri survived some anxious moments before advancing to the final round of singles qualifying event in the USD 400,000 Aircel Chennai Open tennis tournament here on Sunday.

An error-prone Amritraj dropped the first set but recovered in time to get the better of Peter Polansky of Canada 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (9) in a two-and-a-half hour battle, while 17-year-old Bhambri came through a first set tiebreak to oust Ilya Marchenko of Ukraine 7-6 (2), 6-3.

Amritraj will next take on Lars Poerschke of Germany while Bhambri faces Ireland's Louk Sorensen in their respective final qualifying matches tomorrow.

The winners of the two other qualifying matches, also scheduled for Monday, Dustin Brown vs Tsung-Hua Yang and James Ward vs Noam Okun, will also progress to the main draw of the tournament.

Second round: Yuki Bhambri (India) bt Ilya Marchenko (Ukraine)7-6 (2), 6-3; Prakash Amritraj (India) bt Peter Polansky (Canada) 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (9); Louk Sorensen (Ireland) bt Donald Young (US) 7-6 (4), 7-6 (8); Lars Poerschke (Germany) bt Rik de Voest (South Africa) 4-6, 6-3, 7-5; Dustin Brown (Jamaica) bt Jan Minar (Czech Republic) 6-4, 6-4; Tsung-Hua Yang (Taipei) bt Riccardo Ghedin (Italy) 6-3, 6-4; James Ward (Britain) bt Marsel Ilhan (Turkey) 3-6, 6-2, 6-4; Noam Okun (Israel) bt Tatsuma Ito (Japan) 6-2, 6-2.