The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Ajay, Vijay post wins

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 29, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Ajay, Vijay post wins

By Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI, JUNE 28. Ajay Ramaswami pushed his game up by a few notches in beating Luke Campbell of Britain 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the ITF Satellite tennis circuit Masters event at the DLTA Complex here on Monday.

Though he stumbled off to an indifferent start, getting broken in the first game of the match, Ajay served and stroked with verve against the British lad who was increasingly inconsistent as the match progressed.

The British lad had a big serve and good strokes but was plagued by doublefaults, as 11 of them shattered his aspirations, with two of them landing him in deep trouble as he delivered them on breakpoints in the sixth and 10th game of the first set.

Ajay, an employee with ONGC in Mumbai, broke Campbell in the sixth game of the second set to cruise home in just over an hour. In the process, Ajay took his circuit points' collection from 15 to 20, which would assure him seven ATP points, a welcome addition to his present tally of 11.

In the pre-quarterfinals, Ajay will take on the fifth-seeded Sunil Kumar, who is still recovering from a hip strain that had seen him concede the final in the third leg.

Vijay Kannan was in a spot of bother as he lost the first set to the unfancied Shahzad Khan of Pakistan, but played his serve and volley routine nicely in setting up a second round against the seventh-seeded Kamala Kannan.

Ashutosh Singh got the better of Dong-Whee Choi of Korea, the last player to make it to the Masters after a play-off between four players. The effort took the Delhi lad's collection to 15 circuit points, and fetched him a second round clash against teammate Vishaal Uppal.

The left-handed Pathanjali Ravishankar toyed with Mait Kunap of Estonia in setting up a second round against the sixth-seeded Vinod Sridhar. Jaco Mathew was equally at ease in overpowering Saurav Panja, for a pre-quarterfinal meeting against the eighth-seeded Prahlad Srinath.

In a lively contest, David Brewer of Britain beat compatriot Richard Irwin in straight sets. Brewer was quite charged up and played his big game with gusto in beating a talented opponent who had made it to the final of the first leg in Indore, but had struggled to make an impression thereafter. The 19-year-old Irwin was jaded and made too many unforced errors. The real challenge for Brewer will be when he meets another compatriot, the third-seeded Joshua Goodall, the champion of the first leg, on the morrow.

The results:

Singles (first round): Ross Hutchings (GBR) bt Syed Rahil 6-1, 6-2; Vijay Kannan bt Shahzad Khan (Pak) 5-7, 6-3, 6-2; David Brewer (GBR) bt Richard Irwin (GBR) 7-6 (8-6), 6-2; Pathanjali Ravishankar bt Mait Kunnap (EST) 6-1, 6-2; Jaco Mathew bt Saurav Panja 6-2, 6-2; Ajay Ramaswami bt Luke Campbell GBR) 6-4, 6-3; Hiu-Tung Yu (Hkg) bt Mat Lowe (GBR) 6-4, 6-4; Ashutosh Singh bt Dong-Whee Choi (Kor) 7-6 (7-4), 6-4.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Ajay Ramaswami and Vishaal Uppal bt Mait Kunnap (Est) and Atsufumi Yoshikawa (Jpn) 7-5, 7-6 (7-3); Hiu-Tung Yu (Hkg) and Kamala Kannan bt Norikazu Sugiyama (Jpn) and Vijay Kannan 6-1, 6-2; David Brewer and Richard Irwin (GBR) bt Ashutosh Singh and Gurmehar ingh 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3; Saurabh Kohli and Jaco Mathew bt Rishi Sridhar and Vinod Sridhar 7-6 (7-2), 7-5.

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