Mumbai Open: Tursunov rallies into QFs

Mumbai: Russia's Dmitry Tursunov came from behind to shut out a fighting Kristian Pless of Denmark to earn a berth in the men's singles quarter-finals of the $380,000 Kingfisher Airlines Open on Thursday.

Tursunov clinched the battle between two hard-hitting base-liners 7-6 (5) 6-3 6-4 in one hour and 51 minutes to progress to a meeting with James Auckland (Britain) who shocked eighth seed Wesley Moodie (South Africa) 7-6 (3) 7-6

(5).

The fourth-seeded Tursunov, ranked 22nd in the world, was a break up in the opening set before his 109th ranked Danish rival made a stunning recovery by breaking back in the eighth game.

In the tie-breaker, the 23-year-old Moscow-born Tursunov, who came into the tournament after leading Russia to Davis Cup semi-finals with an upset win over USA's Andy Roddick, took a commanding 6-3 lead before winning the set 7-6.

Tursunov started attacking the net more in the second set and the strategy paid rich dividends.

An early break of serve in the fourth game gave the Russian a handy 3-1 lead and he closed out the set by serving purposefully and with steady ground-strokes, especially with his more potent forehand.

Pless's serve came under severe pressure again in the fifth game of the decider when he was down 15-40. He saved the two break-points by hanging on diligently.

But Tursunov set up another break-point with a superb backhand return of serve winner and then came up with a stunning forehand cross court winner to effect the crucial break and go 3-2 ahead.

Pless fought on gamely when Tursunov served for the match and saved three match-points before the latter brought off another superb shot - a forehand down-the-line winner that hugged the sideline - to win the match.

Tursunov served 16 aces in all, and as many as eight in the first set after which he lost, and committed four double-faults while his opponent's slate was clean on the latter count.

Pless served 14 aces, beginning strongly with 6 in the first set, which tapered to three in the last.

Tursunov said after the match that the conditions are very difficult here, in particular the high humidity level.

"The conditions are difficult. Luckily it has not been sunny, but the humidity level is high and that's the reason any virus gets past the body's immune system easily. But it's a challenge which we all have to overcome," he said.

"I still have not fully recovered from the long match (against Roddick) and travel. I was a break up and then lost concentration a bit."