The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Aqeel Khan has it easy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 08, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Aqeel Khan has it easy

By Kamesh Srinivasan

INDORE, JUNE 7. Playing with control and aggression, Pakistan's Aqeel Khan recorded a 6-1, 6-4 victory over the 904th ranked Ross Hutchins of Britain in the first round of the Shimla ITF Satellite tennis tournament at the Indore Tennis Club Courts on Monday.

Aqeel, a wild card entrant, served and stroked with flair and won the support of the sparse gathering.

It was in 1998 that Aqeel last played in a professional circuit when Pakistan hosted a Futures tournament. He lost to Croat Ivan Vajda in the first round of the main event.

The 24-year-old also figured in the Pakistan Davis Cup squad against Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Korea, New Zealand, China, Syria and Hong Kong.

Aqeel Khan has tough task on hand when he takes on the winner of the match between seventh-seeded Joshua Goodall of Britain and Ordan van der Werf of the Netherlands.

Jaleel Khan, also from Pakistan, lost in the third and final qualifying round to Prahlad Srinath. The Deputy Manager of Indian Oil from Bangalore conceded only two games in teaching his rival a tough lesson on hard-court play.

Jaleel accounted for compatriot Shahzad Khan in the second round, after both of them won the first round matches of the qualifying event.

Aqeel partnered with Jaleel found fourth-seeded pair of Jaco Mathew and Kamala Kannan too good as the Pakistani duo bowed out in straight sets.

Top seed Sunil Kumar opened his campaign with a 6-2, 6-2 win over his doubles partner Saurabh Kohli.

However, third-seeded Vinod Sridhar, who joined Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) as an officer recently, toyed with Dong-Whee Choi of Korea in scripting a 6-2, 6-2 win.

"These courts are pretty fast. I didn't give him a chance to get into the match except for getting broken once in the second set,'' said Vinod who will await the winner of the match between qualifiers, Prahlad Srinath and Kiran Kumar.

The day also witnessed an upset when Rishi Sridhar and Vinod Sridhar combined nicely to beat No.1 seeded Ajay Ramaswami and Vishal Uppal in straight sets.

The results:

Singles (first round): Sunil Kumar bt Saurabh Kohli 6-2, 6-2; Vinod Sridhar bt Dong-Whee Choi (Kor) 6-2, 6-2; Aqeel Khan (Pak) bt Ross Hutchins (GBR) 6-1, 6-4.

Qualifying event (third and final round): Pathanjali Ravishankar bt Mohammed Yasser Arafat 6-3, 6-1; Kiran Kumar bt Vignesh Venkatesan 6-3, 6-4; Mat Lowe (GBR) bt Wrik Ganguly 6-0, 6-4; Prahlad Srinath bt Jaleel Khan 6-2, 6-0; Gurmehar Singh bt Sandeep Kumar 6-2, 6-4; Yannick Nelord bt J. Vishnu Vardhan 7-5, 6-3; Kamala Kannan bt Pratim Parekh 6-3, 6-3; Luke Campbell (GBR) bt Ashutosh Singh 6-3, 6-2.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Rishi Sridhar/Vinod Sridhar bt Ajay Ramaswami/Vishaal Uppal 7-5, 7-5; Saurabh Kohli/Sunil Kumar bt Rohan Gide/Vikas Pandey 6-2, 6-0; Aisufumi Yoshikawa (Jpn)/Hiu Tung Yu (Hkg) bt Kiran Kumar/Varun Walia 6-2, 6-0; David Brewer/Richard Irwin (GBR) bt Jaume Barberan-Migu/Roger Lacaci-Domingu (Esp) 6-2, 6-4; Jaco Mathew/Kamala Kannan bt Aqeel Khan/Jaleel Khan (Pak) 6-3, 6-3; Mait Kunnap (Est)/Prahlad Srinath bt Luke Campbell/Timothy Patient (GBR) 6-2, 7-6 (7-3); Joshua Goodall/Ross Hutchins (GBR) bt Ashutosh Singh/Gurmehar Singh 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).

Qualifying event (second and final round): Kiran Kumar/Varun Walia bt Wrik Ganguly/Shreyansh Sacheti 6-4, 7-5; Wrik Ganguly/Shreyansh Sacheti bt Rahil Makharia/Alon Moses 6-2, 6-1; Kiran Kumar/Varun Walia bt Udaya Kumar Reddy/J. Vishnu Vardhan 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).

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