Wild card Sunil Kumar Sipaeya scripted the biggest upset of the day, shocking second seed Aisam-ul Haq Qureshi of Pakistan in a marathon three-setter to advance to the semifinal of the $50,000 SAIL Open ATP Challenger series tournament here on Thursday.

In a two-hour long battle, the 24-year-old held his nerve to clinch a thrilling 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4) win over last week’s champion and overwhelming favourite Qureshi to book his maiden last-four berth in a Challenger tournament.

It did not seem to be much of a contest when the two players took to the court as Sipaeya is ranked 527th on ATP charts, way below the 129th-ranked Qureshi..

In the first set, Qureshi showed just why he was an overwhelming favourite. The 27-year-old literally served out the Indian before breaking him in the eighth game with a well-placed backhand to take the opener in no time.
Jolted out of his comfort zone, a more determined Sipaeya held serve, saving two break points, in the second set and cut down on his unforced errors, making Qureshi work hard for every point.

The Pakistani number one sent down 13 aces in all but it failed to rattle the Indian, who relied on his swiftness on the baseline to earn points.

The second set tie-breaker was a perfect example as Sipaeya engaged Qureshi in long rallies before forcing him to either hit out or bury returns into the net.

To his credit, Qureshi was brilliant whenever he managed to draw Sipaeya to the net. But Sipaeya made sure that the match was played to his strength on the baseline. After clinching a tough second set tie-breaker, the Indian followed the same strategy in the decider, holding serve and frustrating Qureshi in rallies.

Ultimately, the pressure began to tell and the Pakistan’s booming first serve began to falter. Qureshi failed to convert a couple of break points that came his way and in the tie-breaker, Sipaeya’s calm self helped him come out trumps.

In another quarterfinal, fifth seed Russian Michail Elgin survived a scare from French Sebastian De Chaunac before coming through 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Elgin next takes on Ukrainian Ivan Sergeyev, who beat compatriot Ilia Marchenko 6-3, 6-4.

Sipaeya will now be up against Czech Republic’s Tomas Cakl, who rallied to beat American Alberto Francis 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

In doubles action, top seeds Patrick Briaud and Alexey Kedriouk were knocked out by the third-seeded Chinese pair of Xin-Yuan Yu and Xuan Shao Zeng 6-7 (2-7), 7-6 (7-4), 10-6 in the semifinals.

Yu and Zeng will now take on Russians Pavel Chekhov and Michail Elgin, who defeated the Austrian-Israeli team of Martin Slanar and Dekel Valtzer 1-6, 6-3, 10-8 in their last four match.