The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Vivek faces familiar rival

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 14, 2006

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Sport - Tennis

Vivek faces familiar rival

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Top seed Vivek Shokeen will have another tough start as he takes on Aditya Madkekar in the first round of the ITF Satellite tennis circuit second leg at the DLTA Complex here on Monday.

Having been ousted by Madkekar in a three-setter in the second round of the first leg, the 19-year-old will be thirsting for revenge.

More than the immediate chance of a payback, Vivek should be eager to show that he is not just a paper tiger with a strong physique. He has to string some wins together to do justice to his potential and for that he needs to be sensible, stay focused and think on his feet.

Self-doubts have no room on the road of progress and Vivek needs to play a positive game, striking a nice balance between power and prudence.

Challenging prospect

With Aqeel Khan figuring in the same quarter, it will be quite a challenge for Vivek, but ATP points do not come the easy way.

Vijay Kannan, who seems to have rediscovered his game, finds himself in the second quarter with a first round contest against Purav Raja. If all goes well, he may meet Navdeep Singh in the quarterfinals.

Vishnu Vardhan, Pathanjali Ravishankar, Divij Sharan, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Sriram Balaji will be the other players whose progress would be watched with interest.

The seedings:

1. Vivek Shokeen, 2. Pathanjali Ravishankar, 3. Navdeep Singh, 4. Yuri Bezeruk (Aus), 5. Divij Sharan, 6. Ashutosh Singh, 7. Peter Shults (US) and 8. Vishnu Vardhan. Wild cards: Stephen Amritraj, Punna Vishal, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Sriram Balaji.

The results (third and final qualifying round): Kamala Kannan bt Mithun Murali 6-4, 6-4; Nima Roshan (US) bt Ajai Selvaraj 6-2, 6-4; Kiran Nandakumar bt Saif Ali 6-2, 6-2; Patrick Eichenberger (Sui) bt Abhijeet Tiwari 6-0, 6-2; Yu-Da Shieh (Tpe) bt Sumit Prakash Gupta 6-2, 7-5; P.C. Vignesh bt Dilshod Sharifi (Tjk) 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4); Tzu-Yang Lin (Tpe) bt Tariq Jacob 6-1, 6-0; V.M. Ranjeet bt Rohan Gide 6-1, 6-1.

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