KARACHI, Aug 31: Seventh seed Nomi Qamar was the only seed to make his exit in the men's singles pre-quarterfinals, when he went down to unseeded Indian Vijay Kannan 6-3, 6-3, in the ITF Satellite Circuit tennis masters tournament, at Karachi Gymkhana hard courts on Tuesday.

Nomi got off to a fine start playing some splendid cross court smashes against the tall Indian. Vijay getting into his strides cashed in on his service as Nomi's play surprisingly began to falter.

Continuing to commit several unforced errors, Nomi lost the first set 6-3 and although he tried hard to stem the tide, Vijay was now at full throttle picking up the next set also by a 6-3 margin.

Nomi completely frustrated with the outcome of the match smashed his racquet on the ground, conduct unbecoming for the Pakistan No.2. Top seed Aqeel Khan moved smoothly ahead into the quarterfinal, breezing past Tommaso Cafferata from Italy 6-1, 6-2, with the enraged Italian seen engaged in a fiery argument with the referee.

Second seed Toshiaki Sakai from Japan had to work hard in overcoming the Morocco's Yassir Bouyahya 6-4, 6-4. Pakistan's Asim Shafiq after his fine victory against the Australian Dane Fernandez on the opening day, was unlucky to bow out against the tall American Mirco Pehar ranked third in this tournament.

Winning the first set 6-3 with some fine volleys and cross court smashes, Asim lost the next 1-6, as the powerful American came storming back into contention. In the final set both players fought hard for every point and Asim was only match point away from victory leading in the final set 5-4, and 40-30 with Pehar serving.

But the American did not lose his nerve. He caught Asim on the wrong foot with a fine backhand volley to level the scores 40-40. Asim lost his chance when he volleyed into the net and with a powerful cross court smash Pehar was able to level the scores 5-5 and breathe easily once again.

Now on the rampage, Pehar picked up the next two games to emerge a very relieved winner. In another match that went to the wire, the Italian Tommaso Sanna finally got the better of Kamil Filali from Morocco in three hard fought out sets.

Kamil bagged the opener 7-6 (7-4), on a tiebreaker but could not keep up the tempo allowing Sanna to force his way into the quarterfinal, picking up the next two sets 6-3, 6-4.

In another encounter that went into three sets, eighth seed South Korean Cheong-Eui Kim booked his berth in to the next round beating India's Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan. The previous evening the Indian youngster beat Wasif Cheema in three hard fought sets.

The 15-year-old Indian left-hander continued his winning ways taking the first set from Kim 7-5, after leading 4-1 at one stage of the match. Unperturbed by the situation, Kim playing attacking tennis from the baseline coupled with an array of fine volleys, slowly but surely wore down the young Indian, forcing him to surrender the next two sets and the match 6-3, 6-3.

Shahzad Khan after his triumph over Varun Walia of India, put up another fighting display before going down to another Indian, 17-year-old Vivek Shokeen, ranked No.4 in this tournament.

The Italian Enrico Wellenfeld also reserved his berth in the quarterfinals, after Dmitry Ivanov from Uzbekistan retired from the competition after losing the first set 7-6 and 14-12 on the tiebreaker.

With the lead changing hands several times, the two were finally locked at 6-6, which Wallenfeld finally won after a marathon 14-12 tiebreaker. Ivanov completely exhausted after this ordeal fainted on the court and was forced by the medical examiner to surrender the match.

India's Jaco Mathew and Japan's Yoshikawa Atsusumi moved into the last four in the men's doubles event, getting the better of the Moroccan pair of Yasir Bouyahya and Kamil Filali 6-1, 6-3.

Also moving ahead were the Pakistani pair of Jalil Khan and Asim Shafiq, after finally prevailing over the Italian Tommaso combination of Cafferata and Sanna 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

Vijay Kannan (India) and Aqeel Khan (Pakistan) were another pair to reach the semifinal, hardly raising a sweat while overcoming the Indian pair of Vikas Punna and Ashutosh Singh 6-1, 6-3. The same could be said about Mirko Pehar and Toshiaki who handed out a 6-3, 6-1 defeat to another Indian pair Arindam Dhatta and Jeeven Nedunchezhiy.

RESULTS MEN SINGLES (PRE-QUARTERFINAL):