Clinching a double remained a distant dream for Ishaque Iqbal as the top seed went down fighting to local lad Pranav Suri in the quarter-finals of boys' Under-14 category in the ongoing Manav Mangal AITA Total Tennis Talent Series, being played ay Manav Mangal Smart School on Wednesday. However, he entered the semi-finals in the boy's Under-12 category.

Ishaque, who hails from West Bengal, failed to find his touch that had seen him register some fine victories in the previous matches as he succumbed to Pranav Suri of St John's High School in straight sets by 5-4(9-7), 4-1. The thrilling match lasted for about one hour. Ishaque gave a tough fight to Pranav in the first set but some unforced errors from him saw the Chandigarh lad Pranav win the set and book his place in the last four. Pranav will now face Chandigarh's Srijan Uppal who got the better of third seed Dheeranush Bhatti of Chandigarh in a three well contested sets by 5-3, 0-4, 4-1.

Meanwhile, in another quarter-final match, second seed Sachin Kumar of Chandigarh outplayed Abhishek Verma of Punjab in straight sets by 4-0, 4-2. He needed just 35 minutes to demolish his opponent and find his place in the semi-finals. Nishat Eqbal also booked his place in the last four after he registered a fine 4-1, 2-4, 4-1 victory over Mayak Yadav of Delhi.

In the boys' Under-12 category, top seed Ishaque suffered a scare before cruising to a 2-4, 5-4(1), 4-1 win over Sahil Sehwag of Delhi. Dheeranush Bhatti, the second seed, ousted B.S. Anirudh of Karnatka in straight sets by 4-1, 5-4(8-6) to reach the semis. Third seed Shrey Gupta of Haryana lost the first sets before winning the next two sets to secure a 1-4, 4-1, 4-0 win over Abhijeet Singh of Chandigarh. Fourth seed Param Pun blanked unseeded Anupam Lamba of Punjab by 4-0, 4-1 after conceding just one game.

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