The Hindu : Sport : Kristian Pless puts out Nalbandian

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Wednesday, Jan 03, 2007
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Kristian Pless puts out Nalbandian

Nandita Sridhar

Karan Rastogi advances, meets top-seeded Nadal next

BIG DATE: Tuesday's win earned Karan Rastogi a shot at Rafael Nadal on Centre Court.

Chennai: With those close-set eyes barely centimetres apart, David Nalbandian's appearance on a tennis court is seemingly that of clinical cold-bloodedness. He's no gracious he-played-better-than-me loser, specially after he lost 6-2, 3-6, 5-7, in the first round of the Chennai Open ATP tennis tournament, at the Nungambakkam Stadium, on Tuesday.

"I had tendinitis in my left knee, which did not help me," he said after the match.

For Kristian Pless (ranked 84), this was his first win over a top-10 player, an achievement worthy of mention.

Big win

PHOTO: R. RAGU

DANISH DELIGHT: Denmark's Kristian Pless got the measure of Argentina's David Nalbandian at the Chennai Open on Tuesday.

Away from the Centre Court and all the glitz and the distracting din, the outside courts have a calm — almost a practice session feel to them. For an Indian ranked 497 in the world, playing in front of not more than 15 people, the stage would have been perfect to sneak out quietly after a thrashing. What Karan Rastogi chose to do instead was use the surrounding to his advantage and shock Thiago Alves 6-3, 6-4, in the first round.

The Brazilian clearly thought little of an opponent who, in his eyes, was someone more than 300 places lower in the rankings. Karan countered his opponent's top-spin with some clean and accurate hitting in the first set. Leading 4-1 in the second, his focus wavered and familiar scenes of Indian largesse towards opponents and a sort of fear that comes when on the brink of success looked like repeating themselves. At 4-4, he held on to his nerves and subsequently his serve to register his first singles win in the ATP tour.

The 20-year-old from Mumbai will have a different brand of top-spinners to deal with in his second round match against Rafael Nadal, in the Centre Court.

"I don't remember if I've played him (Nadal) before. I might have played him in some under-14 match, but I'm looking forward to the match. I'm just going to focus on my game. It will be one of the biggest days of my career," he said.

Tougher than expected

Rafael Nadal had it tougher than expected against Rainer Schuettler. The Spaniard won 6-4, 6-2.

The results (Prefex denotes seedings): Singles: Paradorn Srichaphan (Tha) bt Simone Bolelli (Ita) 7-6(5), 6-4; Karan Rastogi (Ind) bt Thiago Alves (Bra) 6-3, 6-4; 1-Rafael Nadal (Esp) bt Rainer Schuettler (Ger) 6-4, 6-2; 5-Carlos Moya (Esp) bt Alexander Waske (Ger) 7-6(3), 6-3; Bjorn Phau (Ger) bt Oliver Patience (Fra) 6-4, 6-4; Davide Sanguinetti (Ita) bt Konstantinos Economidis (Gre) 6-4, 6-3; Fabrice Santoro (Fra) bt David Skoch (Cze) 3-0 (concd.); Stefan Koubek (Aut) bt Bartolome Salva-Vidal (Esp) 2-6, 6-3, 7-5; Kristian Pless (Den) bt 2-David Nalbandian (Arg) 2-6, 6-3, 7-5; Igor Andreev (Rus) bt Santiago Giraldo (Col) 6-3, 7-6(2).

Doubles: Ivo Karlovic & Lovro Zovko (Cro) bt Jeff Coetzee (RSA) & Rogier Wassen (Ned) 6-3, 6-4.

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