The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Vishaal Uppal in quarterfinals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 18, 2004

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Sport - Tennis

Vishaal Uppal in quarterfinals

By Kamesh Srinivasan

GURGAON, NOV. 17. The harder they tried, the quicker they slipped. That was the story of the Indian players as they tried to master the clay courts, more than the opposition, in the second leg of the Satellite tennis circuit.

Vishaal Uppal was the only Indian to make the singles quarterfinals, as he joined a Dutch, an Italian, a German, a Japanese, an American and two Austrians, while the top-seeded Sunil Kumar, the fifth-seeded Vijay Kannan and qualifier Rupesh Roy bit the dust at the NTA Complex here on Wednesday.

Sunil Kumar playing some fine tennis ended up a loser against qualifier, Rick Schalkers of the Netherlands, 4-6, 6-7 (5). Sunil tended to slacken the grip every time he gained control over the proceedings. He served eight aces, but that was inadequate to bail him out of trouble.

It was robust tennis that saw Sunil fire aces at will in the fifth game of the first set, when he recovered from being 1-3 and 0-40 down to make it 2-3. And he broke Schalkers in the next game to be on par. Yet, Sunil did not capitalise on the momentum and lost the set 4-6.

In the second set, which was almost a similar story in terms of the early exchange of breaks, it was a brave effort from Sunil as he broke Schalkers' serve in the tenth and 12th games, as the Dutch served for the match, saving two match points in the process.

In the tie-break, Sunil took a 5-3 lead, but lost the next four points. The Dutch played his heart out, and came up with a remarkable passing shot to set up his third match point. Sunil was done with his heroics by now and his shot sailed out this time.

Vijay Kannan bows out

Vijay Kannan missed a set point in the first set tie-break and bowed out to Andreas Fasching of Austria. It was a fine recovery by Vijay as he broke Fasching in the tenth game when the latter was serving for the first set. In the eventual tie-break, Vijay saved two setpoints at 4-6 and volleyed nicely to have a setpoint in his favour.

However, Fasching, quite intense in his approach, took the next three points, smacking winners on the first two, while Vijay obliged by putting a volley wide.

The loss of the first set broke Vijay's resistance and he could not sustain the fight any longer.

The second-seeded Norikazu Sugiyama looked to be getting into his usual competitive mode as he outplayed qualifier Rupesh Roy for the loss of four games.

Vishaal Uppal kept the Indian hopes alive, as he fired 11 aces on his way to a 6-2, 7-6 (2) triumph over Punna vishal.

The results:

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Rick Schalkers (Ned) bt Sunil Kumar 6-4, 7-6 (5); Stefano Ianni (Ita) bt Sarvar Ikramov (Uzb) 6-2, 6-3; Simon Greul (Ger) bt Sascha Kloer (Ger) 3-6, 6-4, 6-2; Vishaal Uppal bt Punna Vishal 6-2, 7-6 (2); Tobias Koeck (Aut) bt Sergei Krotiouk (Rus) 6-3, 6-4; Adam Fass (US) bt Alexey Kedriouk (Kaz) 7-6 (1), 6-7 (3), 6-2; Andreas Fasching (Aut) bt Vijay Kannan 7-6 (7), 6-3; Norikazu Sugiyama (Jpn) bt Rupesh Roy 6-3, 6-1.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Mustafa Ghouse and Vishaal Uppal bt Kamala Kannan and Pathanjali Ravishankar 7-6 (5), 6-0;

Pre-quarterfinals: Ajay Ramaswami and Sunil Kumar bt Sarvar Ikramov (Uzb) and Dmitri Makeyev (Kaz) 6-4, 6-0.

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