This upset meant that only two seeds were left in the fray. Top seed Prahlad Srinath of India did not suffer any jitters while stopping the progress of Le Minh of USA with a clinical 6-2, 6-2 win while fourth seed Vinod Sridhar quelled the challenge of Vishal Uppal 6-4, 6-2.

Local lads Ravikiran Bhat and Shivshankar Kanbargimath also cruised into the last eight stage.

Ravikiran who aims to excel at both studies and in tennis, sidelined Mustafa Ghouse 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) but prior to that, attended the Common Entrance Test (CET). Ravikiran who has had a good run in this tournament, had ousted fifth seed Sikanov Alexandre on Tuesday.

Shivshankar was a 6-3, 6-3winner over Shailesh Dhoble.

The Panja-Mazur tie evoked a lot of interest. Panja who had cut short the aspirations of Adana Altschuter of USA in the first round was up against a fancied Mazur. But it did not matter today who was ranked higher as Panja's confidence undermined his opponent.

The 22-year-old lad from Bengal, Panja set his tracks right with an early break in the third game. But with both playing aggressive tennis, there were many unforced errors. The games did not go with serves except in the sixth where Panja held. Serving for the set at 5-2, Panja's focus drifted and his lost serve. However in the next game he managed to break Mazur's serve to clinch the set at 6-3.

Mazur, taking advantage of an error-prone Panja, held sway over his opponent in the second set. Though the players matched stroke for stroke, Mazur thrived on the crucial break he achieved in the first game. And one more in the seventh game was enough for him to take the set comfortably at 6-2.

The decider proved to be a realtest. The games went with serves till the fifth game, with Panja having an edge at 3-2. Mazur succumbed to the pressure in the next game where he committed three unforced errors to lose the game. However he made amends winning the next two games on the trot to level at four.

Raising his level of game, Panja came up with fine forehand strokes to win the following two games and clinch the issue in his favour. The match lasted 97 minutes.

In another interesting battle that lasted two hours and 17 minutes, Harsh Mankad of India overcame Anton Kokurin of Uzbekistan 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-2.

Results (prefix denote seedings)

Singles (PQF):1-Prahlad Srinath (Ind) bt Le Minh (US) 6-2, 6-2; Shivshankar Kanbargimath (Ind) bt Shailesh Dhoble (Ind) 6-3, 6-3; Harsh Mankad (Ind) bt Anton Kokurin (Uzb) 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-2; Ravikiran Bhat (Ind) bt Mustafa Ghouse (Ind) 6-3, 7-6 (5); Saurav Panja (Ind) bt 6-Dimitri Mazur (Uzb) 6-3, 2-6, 6-4; 4-Vinod Sridhar (Ind) bt Vishal Uppal (Ind) 6-4, 6-3; Steven Bourke (Aus) btVasudeva Reddy 6-1, 7-5; Artem Derepasko (Rus) bt Anand Radhakrishnan 6-0, 6-1.

Doubles (QF):Alexandre Sikanov/ Youznyi (Rus) bt Prahlad Srinath/ Vasudeva Reddy (Ind) 4-6, 6-3, 6-3; Ashley Ford (Aus)/ Syed Fazaluddin (Ind) w/o Le Minh (US)/ Steven Bourke (Aus); Mustafa Ghouse/ Vishal Uppal (Ind) bt Adana Altschuter/ Udwadia (US) 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (4); Artem Derepasko (Rus)/ Harsh Mankad (Ind) bt Anton Kokurin/ Dimitri Mazur (Uzb) 6-4, 6-2.