The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Karan's fine run continues

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 07, 2005

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Sport - Tennis

Karan's fine run continues

Kamesh Srinivasan

CHANDIGARH: Karan Rastogi continued with his good run as he tamed David Brewer of Britain 6-3, 6-4 in the pre-quarterfinals of the Microsoft $10,000 ITF Futures tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex here on Tuesday.

The 19-year-old Karan served and stroked with precision against the talented Briton. Karan's returns were impressive and he broke the Briton in the sixth game of the first set and the first game of the second to cruise home, saving a breakpoint in the tenth game with a smart serve.

In the quarterfinals, the fifth-seeded Karan will be challenged by Germany's Frank Moser, who had beaten the fourth-seeded Norikazu Sugiyama in the first round.

The top-seeded Rohan Bopanna brooked little resistance from the 17-year-old wild card Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan. Rohan will meet the seventh-seeded Toshihide Matsui, who beat the talented Sanam Singh in three sets.

Sanam errs

Sanam served, stroked and moved about the court like a champion. However, when the flow was in his favour, the local lad erred, especially in trying to put away sitter volleys.

Sanam was serving for the match in the tenth game of the second set when he got broken at love. He had a gamepoint to force the tie-break in the 12th, but erred again to lose the initiative.

In the decider, Sanam failed to convert a breakpoint in the fifth game and himself got broken in eighth and that proved decisive.

Uppal advances

Vishaal Uppal was the third Indian to make the quarterfinals, as he beat compatriot Divij Sharan with easey. Vishaal will challenge Jae-Sung An of Korea, who put out the second-seeded Matthew Smith of Britain in straight sets.

Smith's disappointment was complete as he was slapped a fine of $250 for misbehaving with a spectator after his successful first round match against Ashutosh Singh. The referee Sheetal Iyer consulted the ITF in London before arriving at the decision.

The results (pre-quarterfinals): Singles: Rohan Bopanna bt Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 6-3, 6-3; Toshihide Matsui (Jpn) bt Sanam Singh 4-6, 7-5, 6-3; Go Soeda (Jpn) bt Steve Noblecourt (Fra) 6-3, 6-1; Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (Pak) bt Michal Przysiezny (Pol) 6-1, 2-1 (retired); Karan Rastogi bt David Brewer (GBR) 6-3, 6-4; Frank Moser (Ger) bt Hyun-Woo Nam (Kor) 6-3, 6-2; Vishaal Uppal bt Divij Sharan 6-4, 6-1; Jae-Sung An (Kor) bt Matthew Smith (GBR) 6-4, 7-5.

Doubles: Frank Moser (Ger)/Vishaal Uppal bt Arjun Goutham/Aditya Madkekar 6-0, 6-3; Tushar Liberhan/Navdeep Singh bt John McGahon (Irl)/ Matthew Smith (GBR) 6-0, 6-4; Pathanjali Ravishankar/Vinod Sridhar bt Kanagaraj Balakrishnan/Giri Sitham (Mas) 6-0, 6-0; Divij Sharan/Vivek Shokeen bt Siddharth Gulati/Kinshuk Sharma 6-1, 6-1; Jae-Sung An (Kor)/Dominic Stockler (Sui) bt Alexei Filenkov (Rus)/Dmitri Makeyev (Kaz) 6-4, 7-5; Karan Rastogi/Ashutosh Singh bt Hyung Tae Kwon/Hyun-Woo Nam (Kor) 6-3, 6-2; Chu-Huan Yi (Tpe)/Hiu-Tung Yu (Hkg) bt Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan/Sanam Singh 6-4, 6-4; Marico Torres (Bra)/Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (Pak) bt Motaz Abou El Khair (Egy)/Shivang Mishra 6-1, 6-0.

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