The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Gruel routs Vishaal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 26, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Gruel routs Vishaal

By Kamesh Srinivasan

GURGAON, NOV. 25. Simon Greul asserted his undisputed class with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Vishaal Uppal in the quarterfinals of the third leg in the ITF Satellite tennis circuit at the NTA Complex here on Thursday.

The 23-year-old Greul, champion of the first two legs, countered the serve and volley capabilities of Vishaal with razor sharp returns. It was a spectacular performance by the German as he hit the passingshots with ease to outplay the 28-year-old Indian lad.

After being reduced to 1-4, Vishaal had his chances in the sixth game, when Greul faced four breakpoints, but the German played like a champion in getting out of the tight corner. Thereafter, Greul played a solid game, with his big serves and strong groundstrokes to overwhelm Vishaal, who had played a much better match against the same opponent in the quarterfinals of the second leg.

Greul will be challenged by the seventh-seeded Tobias Koeck of Austria, who beat Norikazu Sugiyama of Japan in straight sets. Another Austrian, Konstantin Gruber beat the fourth-seeded Stefano Ianni of Italy in a baseline battle that lasted three hours and 10 minutes. He will meet the Kazakh, the second-seeded Alexey Kedriouk, who stopped John Patrick Tierro of Philippines in a second set tie-break.

Meanwhile, in the play-off for the last two slots in the Masters, Punna Vishal got a walkover as his opponent Marcel Miron of Romania failed to report. The referee Nitin Kannamwar stated that Miron would be slapped a fine of $250 by the ITF. In the other play-off match, Davor Kuseta of Croatia beat Rupesh Roy 7-6 (1), 6-2.

The results: Singles (quarterfinals): Simon Greul (Ger) bt Vishaal Uppal 6-2, 6-1; Tobias Koeck (Aut) bt Norikazu Sugiyama (Jpn) 6-3, 7-5; Konstantin Gruber (Aut) bt Stefao Ianni (Ita) 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-5; Alexey Kedriouk (Kaz) bt John Patrick Tierro (Phi) 6-1, 7-6 (6).

Doubles (semifinals): Alexey Kedriouk (Kaz) and Sergey Krotiouk (Rus) bt Simon Greul and Peter Mayer-Tischer (Ger) 6-3, 6-4; Mustafa Ghouse and Vishaal Uppal bt Hiu-Tung Yu (Hkg) and Kamala Kannan 4-1 (retired).