Noida: Kunal Anand, top seed warded off a stiff challenge from Rishabdev Raman 7-6(8), 4-6, 6-3 in the men's quarterfinals of the Rs.300,000 Uttar Pradesh Open AITA ranking tennis tournament at the Noida Stadium, Sector 21A, on Wednesday.

Anand will be challenged by Chandril Sood, who recovered from a first set loss to beat Yannick Nelord.The other semifinal will feature the former national champion Vinod Sridhar against the second-seeded Siddharth Rawat.