The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Bopanna set to break new ground

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Tuesday, Jul 24, 2007
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Sport - Tennis

Bopanna set to break new ground

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Rohan Bopanna was set to reach his best ranking in both singles and doubles in the latest list to be released by the ATP.

With his second Challenger doubles title of the season at Manchester, the 27-year-old Bopanna was on line to break into the top 100 from his current rank of 108 and easily bettering his best of 107 that he had reached in October last year.

In singles also, Bopanna was likely to jump about 20 places from 233, to comfortably be ahead of his career-best rank of 230 that he had reached in February 2006.

Seeded sixth

Bopanna, making the best use of his expertise on grass, both synthetic and natural on the European circuit, was seeded sixth and drawn to meet wild card David Rice of Britain in the first round of the $25,000 Challenger at Nottingham.

In doubles, Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan were seeded third. They will meet Xavier Audouy of France and Simon Rea of New Zealand.

Three other Indians, Divij Sharan, Purav Raja and Mustafa Ghouse were also in action at Nottingham. While Divij managed to get into the singles draw and get a first-round meeting with the second-seeded Alun Jones of Australia, Purav and Mustafa were restricted to the doubles draw.

Prakash Amritraj, who was set to break into the top 300, was drawn to meet the sixth-seeded Nicolas Tourte of France in the first round of the $50,000 Granby Challenger.

Meanwhile, Karan Rastogi figures in the $50,000 Challenger at Lexington and has been drawn to meet the seventh-seeded Brenadan Evans of the US. He has also paired with Florin Mergea of Romania for the doubles.

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