Guangzhou: Somdev Devvarman and Karan Rastogi kept themselves in the medal hunt by reaching the men's singles quarterfinals with easy wins in the tennis competition of the Asian Games here on Saturday.
Both the Indian players, who have hardly been challenged so far in the tournament, yet again scored dominating victories.
Second seed Somdev won at the expense of just two games as he beat Uzbekistan's 16th seed Vaja Uzakov 6-1 6-1 in the third round at the Aoti Tennis Centre.
The ranking difference between the two players was all the more palpable as 105th-ranked Somdev took just 39 minutes to dispatch the 960th ranked Uzbek.
Somdev will next take on sixth seed Chinese Zhang Ze, who is ranked way behind the Indian at 307.
Rastogi, coming back to international tennis after an injury lay-off, did not have much trouble in thrashing Taipei's 10th seed Ti Chen 6-0 6-4.
After blanking his rival in the opening set, the 332-ranked Indian dropped his serve in first game of the second set but broke 525-ranked Chen in the eighth game to draw parity and broke him for again in the 12th game to clinch the issue.
Rastogi's first real test comes now as he faces top seed and world number 40 Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan next.
If Somdev and Rastogi manage to win one more match, they will be assured of at least a bronze medal in the singles event.
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