Sunil Kumar Sipaeya and Ajay Ramaswami kept the Indian flag flying as they advanced to the quarter-finals in the US $15,000 ITF Futures men's tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex in Delhi on Wednesday.

Sixth seed Sipaeya faced a late challenge from local lad Vivek Shokeen before prevailing 6-1, 7-6(11/9) while Ramaswami tamed compatriot and Davis Cupper Vishal Uppal 6-1, 6-3.

Victories for Sipaeya and Ramaswami came on day that saw eighth seed Vijay Kannan make an exit and promising youngsters Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Arunprakash Rajagopalan suffer crushing defeats.

Kannan went down to Murad Inoyatov 6-2, 7-6(7/4). The Uzbek had packed off wild card Karan Rastogi [Images] on Tuesday.

Nedunchezhiyan put so much into the first set in his match against top seed David Sherwood that he had ran out of gas quickly. The Briton won 7-5, 6-1.

Southpaw Rajagopalan, returning to the circuit after a six-month break following a stomach operation, proved easy meat for second seed German Simon Greul, who won 6-1, 6-2.

Seventh seed Dekel Valtzer of Israel overcame a mid-match slump to oust Vinod Sridhar 6-1, 2-6, 6-4.

The top two seeds had reached the final of the Mumbai leg last week.

Lurking like a shark in the top draw was 18-year-old Uzbek Denis Istomin, who had accounted for third seed Harsh Mankad in the first round. He continued his giant-killing act as he posted a 6-3, 6-2 win over Konstantin Kravchuk of Russia [Images].

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