The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Uppal in last eight

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 25, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Uppal in last eight

By Kamesh Srinivasan

GURGAON, NOV. 24. Vishaal Uppal emerged the only Indian to make the quarterfinals in the third leg of the Satellite tennis circuit at the NTA Complex here on Wednesday.

Uppal beat Divij Sharan 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 to make his third successive quarterfinals in the circuit, and will have the unenviable task of locking horns with the best player on view, the champion of the first two legs, the top-seeded Simon Greul of Germany.

The 28-year-old Uppal handled the match with competence, especially in the decider, though Divij played well and threw a lot of lobs to unsettle Uppal. However, Uppal's better game and experience helped him have the last laugh.

Four other Indians were up against seeded players and were unable to win a single set between them. Vivek Shokeen was unlucky with the bad bounce and lost to the third-seeded Norikazu Sugiyama of Japan. Sugiyama has been playing increasingly well this fortnight and did not need many openings to beat the talented youngster.

Vijay Kannan had no answers to the solid game of the second-seeded Alexey Kedriouk of Kazakhstan.

Koeck to meet Sugiyama

Kamala Kannan played a robust game to get back into the contest, but a poor 12th game when he struggled to find his usual explosive game with the new balls, saw him lose way. The seventh-seeded Tobias Koeck of Austria tightened the noose thereafter to set up a quarterfinal against Sugiyama.

The results: Singles (Pre-quarterfinals): Simon Greul (Ger) bt Rick Schalkers (Ned) 6-1, 6-1; Vishaal Uppal bt Divij Sharan 6-4, 3-6, 6-2; Norikazu Sugiyama (Jpn) bt Vivek Shokeen 6-3, 6-4; Tobias Koeck (Aut) bt Kamala Kannan 7-5, 6-3; Konstantin Gruber (Aut) bt Vlastislav Slama (Cze) 6-4, 6-3; Stefao Ianni (Ita) bt Ajay Ramaswami 6-2, 6-2; John Patrick Tierro (Phi) bt Andreas Fasching (Aut) 6-1, 6-4; Alexey Kedriouk (Kaz) bt Vijay Kannan 6-2, 6-1.

Doubles (Quarterfinals): Alexey Kedriouk (Kaz)/Sergey Krotiouk (Rus) bt Rohan Gide/Aditya Madkekar 6-0, 7-5; Simon Greul/Pter Mayer-Tischer (Ger) bt Punna Vishal/Karan Rastogi 6-4, 7-5; Hiu-Tung Yu (Hkg)/Kamala Kannan bt Ajay Ramaswami/Sunil Kumar 2-0 (retd.); Mustafa Ghouse/Vishaal Uppal bt Stefano Ianni (Ita)/Tobias Koeck (Aut) 3-2 (retd.).

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