The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Greul's quest for third title begins

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 24, 2004

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Sport - Tennis

Greul's quest for third title begins

By Kamesh Srinivasan

GURGAON, NOV. 23. The cream of Indian juniors — Karan Rastogi, Tushar Liberhan and Rupesh Roy — lost to seasoned opponents in the first round of the ITF Satellite tennis circuit (third leg) at the NTA Complex here on Tuesday. The defeat sealed their hopes of making the Masters and earning invaluable ATP points.

Karan tried his best against the champion of the first two legs, Simon Greul, but found the German too hot to handle. Greul unleashed big serves and vicious strokes for an easy win.

Tushar Liberhan rallied nicely from the backcourt against third-seeded Norikazu Sugiyama of Japan, and led 4-2 in the second set. But he committed too many errors, including double faults, undoing all his good work.

Rupesh Roy was up against the fluent game of Vishaal Uppal, who served and volleyed with a touch of assurance. While Karan and Tushar, with four and two circuit points respectively, are out of the Masters, Rupesh may still hope to get in with five circuit points. But he may have to fight for one or two slots with six others with the same points in a play-off.

Vijay, Kamala win

While Vijay Kannan pipped Sascha Kloer of Germany in the first set and forced him to retire in the second, Kamala Kannan earned his place in the Masters with a straight-set victory over Davor Kuseta of Croatia.

Divij Sharan also ensured a berth in the Masters with a comfortable win over Punna Vishal who also complained of a hand injury, but chose to play the singles to keep his commitment to the doubles partner.

Sunil Kumar went down to qualifier Vlastislav Slama of the Czech Republic. The Czech may still have to win another round to book his berth in the Masters.

The results: Singles (First round): Simon Greul (Ger) bt Karan Rastogi 6-2, 6-4; Divij Sharan bt Punna Vishal 6-2, 6-4; Vishaal Uppal bt Rupesh Roy 6-3, 6-1; Norikazu Sugiyama (Jpn) bt Tushar Liberhan 6-4, 6-4; Kamala Kannan bt Davor Kuseta (Cro) 7-6(4), 6-3; Tobias Koeck (Aut) bt Mohammed Shabaan (Egy) 6-3, 6-2; Vlastislav Slama (Cze) bt Sunil Kumar 6-0, 6-1; Stefano Ianni (Ita) bt Sherif Sabry (Egy) 6-4, 6-4; John Patrick Tierro (Phi) bt Adam Fass (US) 7-6(9), 3-6, 6-4; Andreas Fasching (Aut) bt Sarvar Ikramov (Uzb) 7-6(4), 6-3; Vijay Kannan bt Sascha Kloer (Ger) 7-5, 2-0 (retd.); Alexey Kedriouk (Kaz) bt Dmitri Makeyev (Kaz) 6-2, 6-4.

Doubles (Pre-quarterfinals): Alexey Kedriouk (Kaz)/Sergei Krotiouk (Rus) bt Konstantin Gruber/Stefan Seywald (Aut) 6-2, 6-3; Simon Greul/ Peter Mayer-Tischer (Ger) bt Ashutosh Singh/Gurmehar Singh 6-4, 6-3; Punna Vishal/Karan Rastogi bt Tushar Liberhan/Vivek Shokeen 6-0, 3-6, 6-3; Ajay Ramaswami/Sunil Kumar bt Rick Schalkers/Sabin Tigu (Ned) 6-3, 6-4; Mustafa Ghouse/Vishaal Uppal bt Norikazu Sugiyama (Jpn)/Vijay Kannan 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4).

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