Indian teenager Velavan Senthilkumar advanced to the semifinals of the West Rand Open, a PSA event, in Roodepoort, Johannesburg.
Senthilkumar, a finalist at the Parkview Open in South Africa recently, continued the good run and reached the last four with a 7-11 11-5 11-3 11-6 win over fifth-seed Lyed Fuller of England last night.
The Chennai boy, a qualifier, upset top-seed Aqeel Rehman of Austria 11-7 8-11 11-8 11-8. He had also beaten him at the Parkview Open recently.
Earlier in the qualifying phase, Senthilkumar had beaten Guhan Senthilkumar in the first round and Zeeshan Khan in the second and final round, according to a press note from SRFI here.
However, Senthilkumar's compatriot Harinder Pal Sandhu, seeded two, went down in the second round.
After beating French player Enzo Corigliano 11-6 11-6 11 -6, he was sent packing by Egypt's Mohamed Elsherbini, a qualifier. Elsherbini won 12-10 9-11 11-7 12-10.