Ahmed Deedat Abdul Razak (left) and Syed Mohd Agil Syed Naguib stole the show at the men’s doubles of the ITF Men’s Futures US$15,000 at the SLTA tennis centre yesterday.
Martins Podzus of Latvia advanced to the last eight of the singles after beating Dalwinder Singh of India 6-3, 6-4.
KUCHING: Ahmed Deedat Abdul Razak and Syed Mohd Agil Syed Naguib etched their names in the Malaysian tennis history when they became the first pair to reach the doubles semi-finals of a professional tournament at the Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association Tennis Centre yesterday.
Their achievement was made more meaningful when they scored a 7-6(2) 6-4 upset win over the fourth seeds Danilar Duldaev (Krygstan) and Denis Yevseyev in the quarterfinals of the ongoing ITF Men’s Futures US$15,000.
Wild card entry Deedat who is from Selangor and Agil from Negeri Sembilan will have an uphill task to beat Ruben Gonzales (Philippines) and Hunter Reese (US) in today’s semi-finals.
The top seeds were stretched to three sets 7-6(1), 3-6 (10-7) by the ITF No 2075 pair of Vinayak Sharma Kaza (India) and Kelsey Stevenson (Canada) in the other quarterfinal.
It also took the third seeds from Australia Adam Taylor and Jason Taylor three sets to subdue Japan’s Takashi Saito and Ryota Tanuma 5-7, 6-3 (10-8).
Their next opponents are ITF No 1998 and the unseeded combination of Arjun Kadhe (India) and Lukas Ollert (Germany) after the latter outstaged the second seeds from the US John Lamble and Evan Song 4-6, 6-3, (10-5).
Meanwhile, tournament top seed in the singles Alessandro Bega was made to sweat for a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory over Rio Noguchi of Japan.
He next faces sixth seed Martins Podzus of Latvia in the last eight.
The third and fourth seeds Denis Yevseyez and Evan Song are also safely into the next round.
Joining them in the last eight are eighth seed Lukas Ollert, Jurabek Karimov (Uzbekistan) and Japanese challengers Ryota Tanuma and Takashi Saito.