The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Memorable win for Punna Vishal

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Wednesday, Oct 05, 2005

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Sport - Tennis

Memorable win for Punna Vishal

Kamesh Srinivasan

GURGAON: Qualifier Punna Vishal recorded a memorable 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory over fourth-seeded Clement Rousseau of France in the first round of the Oil India Satellite tennis circuit third leg at the NTA Complex here on Tuesday.

On a windy day, the former National champion from Hyderabad kept improving with every game as he tackled the precision stroke-play of the French lad with refreshing energy. The 21-year-old Vishal has been in awful form, and it was only his second win in the circuit in the main event, which incidentally ensured for him a place in the Masters event.

Having been out of the circuit for some time following an elbow injury, Vishal has been struggling to get back into his rhythm. Yet, it was good to see him venture to the net often in an attempt to blunt the fierce groundstrokes of the French lad.

Vishal will next meet Vivek Shokeen who had beaten him last year in their only previous meeting in straight sets.

Rastogi stretched

The second-seeded Karan Rastogi was stretched to his wit's end by the unfancied Jason Zimmermann of the U.S., but the champion of the first leg handled the climax better to set up a second round against Benjamin Dracos of France.

The fifth-seeded Vishaal Uppal continued his domination over Vijay Kannan in recording his fifth win in as many meetings against him on the ITF circuit, as he played a smart game against an opponent who was unusually slow on his feet.

The GAIL employee, Uppal will take on his erstwhile teammate Vinod Sridhar who has since moved to ONGC. Vinod has been battling ill-health for some time, but handled the challenge from Dmitri Makeyev of Kazakhstan in a contest that decided the fate of the two in the rest of the circuit. Both were on four circuit points and needing a win to stay afloat for the Masters event in Delhi that would offer precious ATP points.

Clarke crashes out

The champion of the last circuit Peter Clarke of Ireland was in no mood to fight as he merely went through the motion in making a quick bow to Salifu Mohammed of Ghana. The last meeting between the two was a fierce three-setter in the final of the Masters in Dehra Dun.

The results:

Singles (first round): Alexey Kedriouk (Kaz) bt Jaco Mathew 6-3, 6-1; Devinder Singh Bhusari bt Jitin Bishnoi 7-5, 7-5; Pathanjali Ravishankar bt Guillaume Tarralle (Fra) 7-5, 4-6, 6-1; Salife Mohammed Gha) bt Peter Clarke (Irl) 6-2, 6-4; Punna Vishal bt Clement Rousseau (Fra) 1-6, 7-5, 6-2; Vijey Sundar Prasanth bt Arindam Dutta 6-3, 6-2; Divij Sharan bt Ashutosh Singh 6-7(8), 6-4, 6-3; Tushar Liberhan bt Sumit Prakash Gupta 6-0, 6-0; Sunil Kumar bt Purav Raja 6-3, 6-2; Vishaal Uppal bt Vijay Kannan 6-3, 6-2; Vinod Sridhar bt Dmitri Makeyev (Kaz) 7-5, 6-3; Benjamin Dracos (Fra) bt Mustafa Ghouse 7-5, 6-2; Karan Rastogi bt Jason Zimmermann (U.S.) 6-7(1), 6-4, 6-4.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Alexey Kedriouk (Kaz) and Vijay Kannan bt Pavan Polavarapu and Vishnu Vardhan 6-3, 6-2.

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