The Hindu : Sport : Another tough outing for Dmitry Tursunov

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Another tough outing for Dmitry Tursunov

Kamesh Srinivasan

GRUELLING ENCOUNTER: Tomas Berdych overcame Simon Greul's challenge to reach the quarterfinals. — Photo: Vivek Bendre

MUMBAI: Dmitry Tursunov's will to win came to the fore as he eked out a 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4 victory over Kristian Pless of Denmark in the pre-quarterfinals of the $380,000 Kingfisher Airlines Tennis Open here on Thursday.

The young Akash Wagh may have exposed the vulnerability of the 23-year-old Russian with a fearless game the previous evening, but it was the former world No.1 junior who pushed Tursunov to his wit's end on Thursday.

The 25-year-old Pless, who had won a Challenger in India many years ago with Paradorn Srichaphan and had been beaten in the qualifying event at Halle recently by Rohan Bopanna, served and stroked well in the tie-break of the first set to wrest the initiative with a backhand return winner on set point.

Tursunov was a different player thereafter as he played with renewed vigour and energy to outplay Pless. Tursunov combined explosive power with delectable touch as he made his opponent run all over the court, a ploy that made it easy for him in the decider.

Four matchpoints

After breaking Pless in the fifth game of the decider, Tursunov was on cruise mode till he took four matchpoints to close out the contest, which he did eventually in style with a patented forehand winner.

"I know it is tough on my body, but I can't do much about it. I have to play and win or lose. The first one is better. I am not showing my best game at the moment, but I hope I will become better in the coming matches," said Tursunov.

The Russian said that it would be inappropriate to judge Wagh by one match, though the boy had potential to become a quality player.

Battling ahead

Later, in a thrilling contest that spanned close to two hours, the second seed and crowd favourite, Mario Ancic of Croatia battled past a fighting Stefano Galvani of Italy, 6-1, 7-6(6) to reach the quarterfinals.

The tall Ancic respected his opponent a lot more than required and stayed back at the baseline to check his groundstrokes. However, in the climax, Ancic endured the drama a lot better than the nervous Italian and closed out on his third matchpoint.

Stretched

Elsewhere, third seed Tomas Berdych was stretched by a fighting Simon Greul, a familiar German who has won the Satellite, Futures and Challenger events in India in recent years.

Though the 25-year-old Greul, who had reached the fourth round at Miami in the Masters event in March, beating Srichaphan, Dominik Hrbaty and Tim Henman before being stopped by Roddick, served big and stroked with alacrity to test Berdych, he could not handle the tie-break with the same competence.

Berdych accelerated in the second set to set up a quarterfinal clash against sixth seed Bjorn Phau who overwhelmed quaifier Gouichi Motomura of Japan in straight sets.

Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina retired in the second set of his second round match against Ramon Delgado of Paraguay with a stomach ailment.

Qualifier James Auckland of Britain edged past Wesley Moodie of South Africa in two tie-breaks to set up a clash aginst Tursunov.

The results:

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Ramon Delgado (Par) bt Juan Martin Del Potro (Arg) 6-3, 3-1 (retired); Dmitry Tursunov (Rus) bt Kristian Pless (Den) 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4; James Auckland GBR) bt Wesley Moodie (RSA) 7-6(3), 7-6 (5); Bjorn Phau (Ger) bt Gouichi Motomura (Jpn) 6-3, 6-3; Tomas Berdych (Cze) bt Simon Greul (Ger) 7-6(4), 6-4; Mario Ancic (Cro) bt Stefano Galvani (Ita) 6-1, 7-6(6).

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