The players in mention were the Russian qualifier Andrei Youzhny who put out seventh seed and Indian Davis Cup reserve Vijay 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. For Andrei, the win was indeed a relief, considering the fact that he was against an opponent, who not only received tremendous crowd support but remained a fighter till the end.

Following Andrei was 19-year-old German Thomas Messmer who bumped off first-leg winner and No 3 Radim Zitco 6-7 (8-10), 6-3, 6-1. For the German the victory proved his potential, which in the first-leg was cut short by a nagging back injury costing him probably the title in Mumbai, against the same opponent.

As far as the other Indians left in fray were concerned, the day's proceedings brought cheersamong those seeded -- No 1 Prahlad Srinath, No 2 Syed Fazaluddin and No 8 Sandeep Kirtane who made the quarters. The win however came at a price, of playing fellowmates in Nitin Kirtane, Saurav Panja and wild-card Akshay Vishal Rao leaving the former trio in glee and the other taking defeat as `all in the game.'