NEW DELHI, December 18

Wildcard entrant Divij Sharan stormed into the men's singles semifinals with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over third-seeded Kedar Tembe on Thursday to set up an exciting battle with defending champion Vinod Sridhar in the DSCL Open National Tennis Championship at the DLTA Complex here. Well before he steps on to the court for his match against Vinod Sridhar on Friday, Divij Sharan, 17, has already made this a memorable National for himself.

He started by stopping No. 5 Jacco T Mathew (Tamil Nadu) in his tracks in the opening round and then beat the talented Tushar Liberhaan in the run up to his defeat of fellow left-hander Tembe.

Sanam K Singh , the Chandigarh teenager who captured everyone's imagination on Wednesday during his three-set defeat of No. 4 seed Ajay Ramaswami, ran out of steam and ideas when he squared up against the tall and athletic No. 6 Kamala Kannan (Tamil Nadu).

The top two seeds, defending champion Vinod Sridhar (Tamil Nadu) and Vishal Punna (Andhra Pradesh) stayed on course to a meeting in the final with straight-set victories over Somdev Dev Varman (Tamil Nadu) and Gurmehar Singh (Delhi) respectively. Vinod Sridhar will meet Divij Sharan while Punna takes on Kamala Kannan in the semifinals.

Delhi's Sanaa Bhambri was the only one of the three teenagers who had made waves on Wednesday to survive a chilly Thursday, Afreen Jahan and S Punam Reddy biting the dust in contrasting styles. The left-handed Sanaa, who had beaten No. 3 Archana Venkatraman in the pre-quarterfinals, came out firing on all cylinders and powered her way to a brisk 6-1, 6-1 verdict over seventh-seeded Lata Assudani.

Afreen Jahan , the bespectacled conqueror of top-seeded Liza Pereira in the previous round, came a cropper against fifth-seeded Shruti Dhawan while left-handed Punam Reddy , who had beaten No. 2 Sai Jayalakshmy less than 24 hours earlier, saw her dreams of making it to the round of four crumble against the seventh seed, Samrita Sekhar.

In the semifinals Shruti Dhawan will meet the fourth-seeded Ankita Bhambri (Delhi) while Sanaa Bhambri will clash with Samrita Sekar.

Navdeep Singh , the Dubai-based teenager who trains in England, took another step towards the National under-18 crown when he swept past Andhra Pradesh's J Vishnuvardhan , seeded six rungs above his own 13th placing. Navdeep, who beat top-seeded Rupesh Roy on Wednesday, won his quarterfinal in straight sets. In the semifinals, he meets Maharashtra's third-seeded Saurabh Kohli while the other clash pits No. 2 Divij Sharan against No. 4 Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan. Delh¡'s Parul Goswami emerged the only unseeded player in the girl's under-18 semifinals after a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 conquest of No. 3 Sandri Gangotri. The top three seeds, Sanaa Bhambri, Madura Ranganathan and S Punam Reddy took their appointed slots in the last four.

The results: Men's singles (quarterfinals):

• Vinod Sridhar (Tamil Nadu) beat Somdev Dev Varman (Tamil Nadu) 6-2, 6-0;
• Divij Sharan (Delhi) beat 3 Kedar Tembe 6-4, 6-4;
• Kamala Kannan (Tamil Nadu) beat Sanam K Singh (Chandigarh) 6-2, 7-6(1);
• Vishal Punna (Andhra Pradesh) beat Gurmehar Singh (Delhi) 6-4, 6-4.

Women's singles (quarterfinals):

• Shruti Dhawan (Chandigarh) beat Afreen Jahan (Andhra Pradesh) 6-4, 6-1;
• Ankita Bhambri (Delhi) beat Parul Goswami (Delhi) 6-1, 6-4;
• Sanaa Bhambri (Delhi) beat 7 Lata Assudani (Maharashtra) 6-1, 6-1;
• Samrita Sekar (Tamil Nadu) beat S Punam Reddy (Andhra Pradesh) 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.

Boy's under-18 singles (quarterfinals):

• Navdeep Singh (Delhi) beat J Vishnuvardhan (Andhra Pradesh) 6-2, 6-1;
• Saurabh Kohli (Maharashtra) beat Siddharth Gulati (6-3, 6-4);
• Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (Tamil Nadu) beat Sanam K Singh (Chandigarh) 6-3, 6-3;
• Divij Sharan (Delhi) beat Sumit Prakash Gupta (Delhi) 6-0, 6-2.

Girl's under-18 singles (quarterfinals):

• Sanaa Bhambri (Delhi beat Kartiki Bhatt (Maharashtra) 6-4, 6-4;
• S Punam Reddy (Andhra Pradesh) beat Vandana Murali (Tamil Nadu) 7-6 (2), 2-6, 6-4;
• Parul Goswami (Delhi) beat Sandri Gangotri (Andhra Pradesh) 6-2, 6-2;
• Madura Ranganathan (Tamil Nadu) beat Preeti Subramaniam (Tamil Nadu) 6-2, 6-2.