The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Divij, Tushar advance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 23, 2006

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Sport - Tennis

Divij, Tushar advance

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Divij Sharan provided a thrust to his campaign by getting past fifth seed Purav Raja 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of the ITF Satellite tennis circuit third leg at The DLTA Complex here on Tuesday.

It was a revenge victory for the 20-year-old Delhi lad as he had lost to Raja in the pre-quarterfinals of the second leg.

Divij was the last direct entrant into the main draw of the third leg and he can now hope to accumulate more circuit points as he faces qualifier Dilshod Sharifi of Tajikistan in the second round.

Tushar Liberhan continued his fine run by knocking out seventh seed Nima Roshan of the US in a nerve-wracking contest that lasted for over three hours.

Anxious moments

The Chandigarh boy went through anxious moments as he missed four matchpoints in the 12th game of the decider, but played competently in the tie-break to set up a second round clash with Vishnu Vardhan.

Former Davis Cupper Punna Vishal bounced back to outplay eighth seed Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan. He will meet wild card Yannick Nelord, who perspired past qualifier Jalil Khan of Pakistan.

Ashutosh Singh played a sharp game to stop 16-year-old Sriram Balaji in straight sets. He will next meet third seed Pathanjali Ravishankar.

The results (first round):

Aqeel Khan (Pak) bt Navdeep Singh 6-1, 6-1; Cheong-Euo Kim (Kor) bt Wrik Ganguly 7-5, 6-3; Dilshod Sharifi (Tjk) bt Kamala Kannan 6-3, 6-4; Divij Sharan bt Purav Raja 7-5, 6-3; Pathanjali Ravishankar bt Patrick Eichenberger (Sui) 6-3, 6-4; Ashutosh Singh bt Sriram Balaji 7-6(5), 6-3; Kiran Nandakumar bt Dai-Chiao Lin (Tpe) 6-4, 6-4; Tushar Liberhan bt Nima Roshan (US) 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(4); Mustafa Ghouse bt Chin-Yu Huang (Tpe) 6-3, 6-3; Punna Vishal bt Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-2; Yannick Nelord bt Jalil Khan (Pak) 4-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(5); Yuri Bezeruk (Aus) bt Arjun Goutham 6-2, 6-3.

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