The Hindu : Sport : Prakash, Bopanna all fired up

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 25, 2006

Sport

Sport

Prakash, Bopanna all fired up

Kalyan Ashok

DHARWAD: It had been a hectic and taxing week for the pros on the Challenger Tour and after a torrid stint at Chikmagalur, where they had to make do with a lot of inconvenience on and off the court, the Challenger caravan has moved here and promises a better show.

The ATP Challenger returns here after a gap of three years and the organisers at the Dharwad District Tennis Association courts are fully equipped to run the event, which begins with the main draw on Tuesday, in a more professional manner.

The tournament at Chikmagalur has been a mixed bag for the Indians. A superb display by the young Karan Rastogi, who made it to the last eight in an impressive fashion, somewhat wiped out the disappointment of watching Davis Cupper Prakash Amritraj and local favourite Rohan Bopanna making a hasty exit in the second round. They can certainly take the cue from Rastogi, who showed immense self-belief and a positive attitude.

Prakash and Rohan are determined to fire again on all cylinders. The sixth-seeded Prakash meets Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland, who is 400 slots below him and it should be an easy opener for Prakash.

Bopanna (235) meets Jesse Huta Galung of Netherlands (340). The big-serving Bopanna should pull through the opener, but Rastogi runs into fourth seed Lukasz Kubot of Poland, whom he beat on way to the quarterfinals at Chikmagalur.

All the four wild cards went to Indians including two to Karnataka players Kiran Nandakumar and Kaushik S. Raju, and the other two to Vishal Uppal and Sunil Kumar.

Danai confident

Danai Udomchoke of Thailand, who won his fifth Challenger title at Chikmagalur, hopes to continue his good run here also. Chikmagalur's bonus of 50 points has already put him on track to realising his ambition of breaking into the top 100, and a good show here should accelerate that process.

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