The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Gurmehar Singh upsets Ajay Ramaswami

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Wednesday, Sep 15, 2004

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Sport - Tennis

Gurmehar Singh upsets Ajay Ramaswami

By Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 14. Gurmehar Singh played with confidence after an indifferent start to beat the eighth-seeded Ajay Ramaswami 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the Indian Oil ITF men's Futures tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Tuesday.

The 23-year-old qualifier — son of the former India hockey captain Ajit Pal Singh — will next play Jaco Mathew in the pre-quarterfinals tomorrow.

The 16-year-old Sanam Singh overcame a spell of nasal bleeding to beat J. Vishnu Vardhan 6-4, 6-4. A quarterfinalist at Hyderabad, Sanam Singh will next play the seventh-seeded Toshiaki Sakai of Japan.

The second-seeded Sunil Kumar found himself in a spot of bother, down 0-2 in the decider. But he reeled off the next four games after which his Swiss opponent, Dominik Stoeckler, cried a halt to the proceedings because of exhaustion and had to be attended by the physiotherapist.

Arjun Goutham overcame NTA trainee Rupesh Roy 4-6, 6-0, 6-0, earning himself a meeting with the fifth-seeded Vinod Sridhar in the next round.

Vijay Kannan registered a 6-3, 6-4 win over sixth-seeded Mustafa Ghouse, whose big serves were neutralised by erratic stroke-making. The Afro-Asian Games champion will meet State-mate Kamala Kannan, who beat Sri Lankan Renouk Wijemane 6-4, 7-6(4). The Lankan had to be rushed to a hospital because of a bout of cramps after the match.

Punna Vishal served and volleyed his way to a 6-2, 6-3 win over Tai-Wei Liu of Chinese Taipei. He overcame an early break in the second set to cruise home after coming back form a rain delay. The rain came as a welcome relief on a warm day. But the Hyderabadi lad had recovered ground to lead 3-2 in the second set by then.

The reigning national champion, Punna Vishal, will challenge the fourth-seeded Aqeel Khan of Pakistan in the second round. The Pakistani was in trouble when he lost the second set against wild card Arindam Datta, but played a solid decider to overpower the US-based lad 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.

The results: Singles (first round): Norikazu Sugiyama (Jpn) bt Yew Ming Si (Mas) 6-3, 5-7, 6-3; Chris Kwon (US) bt Xiao-Peng Lai (Hkg) 6-4, 6-4; Sanam Singh bt J. Vishnu Vardhan 6-4, 6-4; Aqeel Khan (Pak) bt Arindam Datta 6-2, 4-6, 6-1; Punna Vishal bt Tai-Wei Liu (Tpe) 6-2, 6-3; Kamala Kannan bt Renouk Wijemane (Sri) 6-4, 7-6(4); Vijay Kannan bt Mustafa Ghouse 6-3, 6-4; Vinod Sridhar bt Shivang Mishra 6-3, 6-3; Arjun Goutham bt Rupesh Roy 4-6, 6-0, 6-0; Vishaal Uppal bt Takeshi Itoh (Jpn) 6-3, 6-4; Gurmehar Singh bt Ajay Ramaswami 1-6, 6-4, 6-3; Martin sayer (Hkg) bt Pathanjali Ravishankar 6-4, 7-6(4); Sunil Kumar bt Dominik Stoeckler (Sui) 5-7, 7-6 (3), 4-2 (retired).

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