The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Shokeen bows out

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 17, 2006

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Sport - Tennis

Shokeen bows out

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Virali Murugesan Ranjeet of Chennai knocked out the top seed Vivek Shokeen 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 in the pre-quarterfinals of the ITF Satellite tennis circuit second leg at the DLTA Complex here on Wednesday.

In a duel that lasted nearly two and a half hours, Ranjeet weathered spells of blistering strokeplay from the local lad, before patiently carving out a well-deserved win.

In contrast, the 19-year-old Vivek, after winning the first set, lost his rhythm when things were not going his way in the second and third sets.

Ranjeet, a trainee of the TTT Warrior Academy in Chennai, wound up the second set with an ace and later said he was confident of clinching the third as his opponent was fast tiring out.

Rusty

Second seed Pathanjali Ravishankar and Purav Raja had to sweat it out against Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Divij Sharan respectively, on a day when every singles match went to three sets.

Jaco Mathew missed two matchpoints as he lost in an extended tie-break in the third set against Nima Roshan of the United States, who got away with an extensive use of foul language.

Third seed Navdeep Singh looked to be settling down into a good rhythm as he stopped a spirited challenge from Arjun Goutham.

The results (Indians unless mentioned): Singles (pre-quarterfinals): V.M. Ranjeet bt Vivek Shokeen 4-6, 6-1, 6-2; Aqeel Khan bt Ashutosh Singh 4-6, 7-5, 6-3; Navdeep Singh bt Arjun Goutham 6-3, 3-6, 6-4; Purav Raja bt Divij Sharan 6-2, 3-6, 7-5; Nima Roshan bt Jaco Mathew 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(9); Yuri Bezeruk (Aus) bt Sriram Balaji 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-1; Stephen Amritraj (U.S.) w.o. Peter Shults (U.S.); Pathanjali Ravishankar bt Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 7-6(2), 3-6, 7-5.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Vijay Kannan & Ashutosh Singh bt Patrick Eichenberger (Sui) & Tristan Farron-Mahon (Irl) 6-1, 6-2; Jaco Mathew & Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Sandeep Kirtane & Purav Raja 7-6(2), 5-7, 7-6 (5).

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