In the men's doubles, Jack Hui and Brian Hung held a one-set lead against number one seeds, Artem and Dmitri Sitak, when the Hong Kong duo took the opener with a mighty effort in a tiebreak, 7-6(3). However, the more experienced Russian pairing, who owns four Futures doubles titles together as a team, came back strong to take the next two sets, 6-3, 6-3, to advance to the quarterfinals.

The top seeds have subsequently reached the final after defeating the third-seeded pairing of Poland's Radoslav Nijaki and Filip Urban. The Russians will face No. 2 seeds Nikola Ciric and Darko Madjarovski of Serbia & Montenegro in the gold medal game.

The Sitaks won the Spain F12 doubles title back in June and losing in the Uzbekistan F2 final to Alexey Kedriouk and Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya in April. Their best finish higher up was at the Saransk Challenger in Russia just earlier this month where they got to the semis. They also won three successive Futures doubles together at the tail-end of last year at the Qatar F3, F4, and F5.

The younger Sitak, Artem, who is seeded seventh, also showed supreme form in the men's singles quarterfinals earlier today when he ended third-seeded Chen Ti's challenge by coming from a set down to upset the world No. 276 in three, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1.

The Russian 19-year-old is currently ranked 575th in the world.

As a qualifier at the Spain F13 at Lanzarote back in June, Artem Sitak went all the way to the title decider before being upended by the tournament's number one seed, Wang Yeu-Tzuoo, 6-3, 6-3. On his way to the final, he inflicted straight-set defeats to third-seeded world No. 269, Zbynek Mlynarik, of Austria in the second round; and world No. 381, Simon Stadler, of Germany in the quarters.

Chen Ti's form is relatively good coming in since he had just reached the semis at the Chia F4 in Tianjin, followed by a triumph at the China F5 in Beijing at the end of July before arriving in Izmir.

Top-seeded Wang Yeu-Tzuoo, presently ranked at a career-high No. 122, had no such problems when the Taiwanese Davis Cupper saw off No. 10 seed, Nikola Ciric, of Serbia & Montenegro, 6-3, 6-4, to set up a semifinal date with twelfth seeded Russian, Evgeny Kirillov, who is ranked at No. 749.

The best finish on the pro circuit by the teenager from Russia was a runner-up finish at the US$15,000 Croatia F1 Futures in Zagreb earlier in February when, as a qualifier, he went all the way to the final before going down against world No. 85, Robin Vik of the Czech republic in the final in straight sets.

Kirillov dumped three seeds in three successive rounds in that tournament, including No. 3 Jaroslav Pospisil in the quarters and second-seeded world No. 260, Paolo Lorenzi, of Italy in the semis.

However, the 18-year-old Nitishi native, currently ranked eighteenth on the ITF World Junior Circuit, will have to be at his best against Wang Yeu-Tzuoo, as the former wunderkind from Taipei is determined to win this event after getting knocked out in the semifinals two years ago in Daegu as the number one seed. His fellow teammate, Lu Yen-Hsun, the then second seed in 2003, was the eventual men's champion of the 22nd Universiade in Korea.

Kirillov had ended the giant-killing run of Pierre Mentenier in the quarterfinals just this afternoon with a comprehensive, 6-2, 6-3, victory. However, the Frenchman had already wreaked enough havoc in the men's draw by upsetting No. 4 seed Filip Urban of Poland and Hong Kong's very own sixteenth seed, Brian Hung.

Second-seeded Victor Bruthans of the Slovak Republic, world ranked No. 250, was upset by unheralded Sebastien Kosak of France in three sets, 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 6-2. The French representative, ranked a modest 1148th in the world, had already eliminated two other seeds thus far - No. 11 Nickolai Dyachok of Ukraine in the third round and No. 5 Darko Madjarovski of Serbia & Montenegro in the fourth.

Kosak, the only unseeded player in the final four line-up, will be gunning for more upsets when he faces Artem Sitak in the other men's semifinal later over the weekend.

In the women's singles, number one seed Cho Yoon-Jeong of Korea, winner of the 2001 Asian Championships at Victoria Park, got a scare before progressing safely through to the final after losing the opening set, 6-4, against fourth seed and world No. 236, Chan Chin-Wei, before overcoming the Kaohsiung native, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Meanwhile in the other semifinal, second seed and world No. 180, Eva Hrdinova, of the Czech Republic ended the challenge of No.4 seed Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei with a 6-4, 6-3, victory earlier today.

The 19-year-old from Taipei is firmly on the comeback trail to top her previous career-high ranked of No. 130, set in the summer of 2002, after she won four US$25,000 ITF Women's Circuit events since the beginning of June, coming up trumps in Gunma, Seoul, Incheon, and Kurume.

Currently ranked 209th in singles and a career-high of 117th in doubles, she reached the semifinals of 2001 Asian Championships as a sixteen year-old right here in Hong Kong before losing to top seed and eventual champion, Cho Yoon-Jeong, of Korea.

Results
23rd Summer Universiade
Izmir, Turkey
12-20 August 2005

Mixed Doubles

First Round
Brian Hung/Lam Po Kuen (HKG) d. Dianne Hollands/Warwick Foy (NZL) 6-2 6-3

Second Round
Brian Hung/Lam Po Kuen (HKG) d. (7)Raffaella Bindi/Marco Crugnola (ITA) 6-3 6-3

Quarterfinals
(1)Chen Ti/Chuang Chia-Jung (TPE) d. Brian Hung/Lam Po Kuen (HKG) 6-4 6-2

Men's Doubles

Second Round
Jack Hui/Brian Hung (HKG) d. Weerapat Doakmaiklee/Kirati Siributwong (THA) 7-5 7-5

Third Round
(1)Artem Sitak/Dmitri Sitak (RUS) d. Jack Hui/Brian Hung (HKG) 6-7(3) 6-3 6-3

Official tennis logo courtesy of 23rd Universiade