Ismail said he was ``tired'' and Kirtane said he was ``not feeling so good''. Ismail later conceded his doubles semi-final after one game. Kirtane won his.

Ismail conceded to 16-year-old Chandigarh lad Sunil Kumar, with the latter leading 6-2, 2-1 (he was also a break up).

Mustafa Ghouse was leading 6-3, 5-1 and 30-0, two matches away from a semi-final spot when Kirtane called it quits. He told the chair umpire that he may concede the match when Ghouse was on 5-1 in the second set, changed his mind, played and then conceded two points later.

Sunil Kumar had already played an under-18 three-setter on clay, losing to Tamil Nadu's Mithun Murali 3-6, 6-3, 1-6.

Meanwhile Ghouse said: ``Nitin is not a quitter. I don't know why he conceded. I've seen him play for years, in all kinds of situations andwith all types of injuries. I just don't know what happened, why he conceded.''

In the day's other quarters, West Bengal's fourth seed Saurav Panja outlasted an off-colour Vishaal Uppal 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-0. Panja will take on Sunil, while Ghouse plays IOC's Vasudeva Reddy.

Reddy removed third seed Kannan 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. Kannan was leading 4-1 in the decider.

In the women's section, the top four seeds proceeded to the semifinals.

Results (quarter-finals, seedings in prefix)

Men's: 7-Mustafa Ghouse (Mah) bt 1-Nitin Kirtane (Mah) 6-3, 5-1 conc; Vasudeva Reddy (IOC) bt 3-Vijay Kannan (Del) 4-6, 6-2, 6-4; Sunil Kumar (Chd) by Asif Ismail (Mah) 6-2, 2-1 conc; 4-Saurav Panja (WB) bt 6-Vishal Uppal (Del) 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-0.

Boy's under-18: 1-AV Rao (Chd) bt N Mukundan (TN) 6-3, 6-2; 2-Kedar Shah (Mah) bt Amanjot Singh (Chd) 6-4, 6-3; Parantap Chaturvedi (Del) bt Benjamin Xavier (Mah) 1-6, 7-6 (4) 6-4; Mithun Murali (TN) bt Sunil Kumar (Chd) 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

Women: 1-Sai Jayalakshmy(IOC) bt Janaki Krishnamurthy (Mah) 6-0, 6-1; 2-Rushmi Chkravarthi (IOC) bt Lisa Pereira (Mah) 6-3, 6-1; 3-Archana Venkataraman (Kar) bt 8-Radhika Tulpule (Mah) 6-3, 6-3; 4-Arthi Venkataraman (Kar) bt Harsimran Kaur (Chd) 6-0, 3-6, 6-4.

Girl's under-18: 1-Sheethal Gautham (Kar) bt Khruscher Italia (Mah) 6-3, 6-1; 2-Sonal Phadke (Mah) bt C Nandita (TN) 6-2, 6-2; Radhika Tulpule (Mah) bt T Yamini (TN) 6-0, 7-5; Karishma Patel (Guj) bt Harsimran Kaur (Chd) 4-6, 7-6 (0), 6-2.