KARACHI, May 25: Pakistan top ranked star Aqeel Khan continued his impressive run in the Indian F-I Futures tennis tournament when he eased into the last eight of the world ranking event with a victory over India’s Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy in New Delhi on Thursday.

Aqeel who upset second seed Kazakhstan’s Alexey Kedriouk in the first round was once again in top form as he scored a convincing 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 triumph over Narayanaswamy.

One of Pakistan's key Davis Cup team members, Aqeel has been sent to India to compete in a couple of world ranking events in a bid to prepare him for a tough Davis Cup Asia Oceania Group-I relegation playoff against China in China in September this year.Aqeel, a wild card entrant in the New Delhi event, made a slow start in the match against Narayanaswamy, losing the opening set after conceding a crucial break point.

But he bounced back and took the second set 6-2 to take the match into the third set. The Karachi-based player was in full flow in the final set, which he cruised home 6-1 hitting repeated winners to enter the last-eight stage of the competition.

In the quarterfinals, Aqeel will meet India's Vivek Shokeen who thrashed compatriot Vishal Uppal 6-1, 6-1 in the second round.

Results

(second rounds): Henry Adjei-Darko (GHA) bt Mustafa Ghouse (IND) 7-5, 6-2 Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya (IND) bt Vijay Paul (USA) 6-3, 6-1 Karan Rastogi (IND) bt Amir Weintraub (ISR) 6-1, 6-4 Yaoki Ishii (JPN) bt Aditya Madkekar (IND) 6-1, 6-1 Dmitri Makeyev (KAZ) bt Vinod Sridhar (IND) 7-5, 6-1 Nick Monroe (USA) bt Navdeep Singh (IND) 6-0, 7-5 Vivek Shokeen (IND) bt Vishal Uppal (IND) 6-1, 6-1 Aqeel Khan (PAK) bt Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (IND) 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.--Agencies