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Childs packs off Mertinak on a bad day for seeds

By Khalyan N. Ashok

Briton Lee Childs, who beat the top-seeded Michal Mertinak of Slovakia, stretches for a forehand return in their ATP Challenger Series match in Tumkur on Thursday. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

TUMKUR Oct. 2. It was a slaughter of seeds in the $ 25,000 ATP Challenger tennis championship at the Mahatma Gandhi Stadium as four were sent packing, including the top player Michal Mertinak of Slovakia. Only the fourth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus and fifth seed Michal Tabara of Czech Republic made the last eight.

The last Indian standing Harsh Mankad fell, going down to Baghdatis 4-6, 5-7 in a close contest. The Indian interest, however, was kept alive by Prakash Amritraj as the Davis Cupper, teaming up with South African Rik de Voest, entered the doubles quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-4) win over the British pair of James Auckland and Lee Childs.

The biggest winner of the day was qualifier Lee Childs of Great Britain, who shot down the big serving Mertinak 6-4, 6-2. Childs, ranked 410, was in no awe of the 190th-ranked Mertinak. The British Davis Cupper, who had won three Futures over the last season and was a European junior champion once, played consistently, serving hard and returning well to take the sting off Mertinak's serve. Childs fired as many as nine aces compared to Mertinak's four. But the top seed's trouble with his first serve gave Childs the edge.

Childs quickly got on top of his Czech rival, breaking him in the seventh game to go 4-3 up and held on to take the first set. The second set was marked by some fierce rallies as both players hit solid groundstrokes from the baseline and Childs, who first broke in the third game, came under pressure in the fourth as he struggled to hold serve. But the gritty Briton prevailed after five deuces and went on to crack Mertinak's serve again in the fifth game. He then stretched his lead to 5-1 and closed the set and match 6-2.

The third seed Rik de Voest, sixth seed Marcello Craca of Germany and seventh seed Oliver Marach of Austria followed Mertinak out.

Phillipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, ranked 283, stopped de Voest, who is 80 spots above him on the ATP list, with a 6-4, 7-5 verdict. Switzerland's Stephane Bohli was a delight to watch on the centre court. The Swiss was just too good at the net and hit some great volleys for which Marach had no answer. Marach, who had a long day on the court against Sunil Kumar yesterday, went down 2-6, 0-6.

Craca waged a marathon battle with Lee Martin of Great Britain, before bowing out 2-6, 7-6 (10-8), 6-7 (5-7). The three-hour contest saw some long rallies and the tussle sapped both players' energies. Craca, wavering in concentration, began making quite a few mishits and lost his cool too to compound his problem.

Harsh falls

One fancied Harsh's chances given the trend of the day, but it was not to be as Baghdatis, ranked No. 1 in Cyprus and plays Davis Cup for his country, came up with a solid all-round game. He remained unruffled despite Harsh's heroics midway through the tie, kept his returns in and served steadily, forcing Harsh to rush his strokes.

Harsh began on a shaky note, dropping serve in the very first game of the match. That was enough for Baghdatis to take control of the first set. And Harsh came short whenever he tried to level scores. After Baghdatis took the first set with a single break, Harsh raised the level of his game in the second. A sequence of three straight breaks settled the set and match. Baghdatis broke Harsh in the ninth game but the latter struck back in the 10th. Baghdatis then grabbed a decisive break in the 11th game. After two mishits, Harsh slumped to breakpoint when he slammed a backhand into the net. Though he saved the breakpoint with a neat return, Baghdatis sealed the set, blasting a forehand winner and silenced a motley crowd rooting for Harsh.

Tabara got past compatriot Ola Fukarek, who conceded due to a recurring lower back pain. Fukarek dropped the first set 6-7 (5-7) and was tied 3-3 in the second before he sought medical time out. The quarterfinal line-up: Lee Childs v Fransesco Aldi; Stephane Bohli v Marcos Baghdatis; Lee Martin v Phillipp Kohlschreiber; Michal Tabara v Dieter Kindlmann.

The results (prefix denotes seedings):

Singles (second round): Lee Childs (GBr) bt 1-Michal Mertinak (Svk) 6-4, 6-2; Lee Martin (GBr) bt 6-Marcello Craca (Ger) 6-2, 6-7 (8-10), 7-6 (7-5); Phillipp Kohlschreiber (Ger) bt 3-Rik de Voest (RSA) 6-4, 7-5; Dieter Kindlmann (Ger) bt Michal Przysienzy (Pol) 6-4, 6-0; Stephane Bohli (Sui) bt 7-Oliver Marach (Aut) 6-2, 6-0; 5-Michal Tabara (Cze) bt Ola Fukarek (Cze) 7-6 (7-3), 3-3, concd.; Fransesco Aldi (Ita) bt Leonardo Aldi (Ita) 7-6 (7-2), 6-2; 4-Marcos Baghdatis (Cyp) bt Harsh Mankad (Ind) 6-4, 7-5.

Doubles (second round): Rik de Voest (RSA)/Prakash Amritraj (Ind) bt James Auckland/Lee Childs (GBr) 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-4); Ti Chen/Yeu Tzuoo Wang (Tpe) bt Alex Bogdanovic/Lee Martin (GBr) 7-6 (7-3), 7-5.

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