Singh is King in Chennai

Wild-card entrants Sanam Singh and Somdev Devvarman stormed into the Aircel Chennai Open semis with an impressive win.

Sanam is a bundle of energy. Whenever I combine with him, his positive energy helps me play better as well - Somdev.

Sanam and Somdev regsitered victory over Rogier Wassen and Jeff Coetzee.

For Chennai, there's a new king in the block. In only his second match at the Aircel Chennai Open tournament, Sanam Singh teamed up with Somdev Devvarman and displayed the same liveliness that helped them win the opener.

The wild-card duo destroyed seasoned doubles players Jeff Coetzee of South Africa and Rogier Wassen of The Netherlands in less than an hour's exciting action.

Sanam and Somdev won 55 out of the 93 points played in their 6-2, 6-3 victory to book a spot in the semi-finals of the doubles competition in the USD 400,000 ATP tournament on Thursday.

In a match dominated by the Indian pair, the duo saved three out of the four break-points on its serve. The only breakpoint given was on Somdev's serve, while serving for the first set at 5-0.

Sanam, who will turn 22 on January 11, has so far been a revelation in this edition of India's only ATP tournament. The youngster, currently a student at the University of Virginia where Somdev graduated earlier, piled on winners from both sides of the courts.

Sanam's contribution in the match was almost double to Somdev's and the 24-year-old India No.1 doesn't seem to mind too much as he says, "He was incredible out there. His energy on court helps me to do well. We're gelling well as a team and having fun out there."

Somewhere in the next couple of years, there's certainly good news for India, "I am going to go back to college while Somdev will continue his ATP World Tour. But somewhere down the years, we're looking up to a partnership," said Sanam.

Despite the late schedule of the final doubles match on centre court, a good many supporters hung around to cheer the young Indians. And at the end of the match, the duo surprised the fans by climbing up into the stands to sign some autographs and pose for pictures.

Earlier, after losing a close first set 5-7, another wild-card team of Carlos Moya and Yuki Bhambri went down to second seeds Marcel Granollers and Santiago Ventura in the other quarter-final action. The Indo-Spanish dream pair had no answers to the expertise of the Spanish team in the second set as they lost it 6-1.