The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Yuki Bhambri advances

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Wednesday, Aug 01, 2007
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Yuki Bhambri advances

Special Correspondent

Breaks into ATP rankings

NEW DELHI: Yuki Bhambri made an impressive entry into the singles ranking of the ATP computer with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over qualifier Eui-Yeon Yang of Korea in the first round of the ONGC $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Tuesday.

The 15-year-old Delhi player, who has only played in the qualifying event of four such tournaments so far, capitalised on the wild card entry against tired opponent who looked a sitting duck right from the start.

Yuki played with intelligence and composure. The first round victory may have fetched him the first ATP point in singles, but Yuki’s game will get a reality check when he takes on the top-seeded Aqeel Khan of Pakistan in the pre-quarterfinals on the morrow.

Malik advances

Another youngster, the 17-year-old Vijayant Malik, also made the best use of an easy draw and tamed lucky-loser, the 31-year-old Katsushi Fukuda of Japan 6-3, 6-2.

Like Yuki, Malik will have the task of challenging the second-seeded Wang Yu Jr. of China in the next round.

The champion of the last event at Chennai, Vijay Kannan overcame a sluggish start to outplay Tushar Liberhan before the latter bowed out with a strained shoulder early in the second set.

However, the singles finalist and doubles champion last week, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan lost to qualifier Chang Yu of China.

Shokeen loses

The poor run of Vivek Shokeen continued, as the seventh seed made his third successive first round exit, beaten by the Korean qualifier Min-Hyoek Cho.

Vishnu Vardhan pulled off a creditable first set against qualifier Leandro Ferreira of Brazil, saving three set points along the way, and his opponent obliged by retiring early in the second set.

The results:

Singles: First round: Yuki Bhambri bt Eui-Yeol Yang (Kor) 6-2, 6-1; Chang Yu (Chn) bt Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 6-4, 6-1; Tatsuma Ito (Jpn) bt Purav Raja 6-2, 6-4; Sun Peng (Chn) bt P.C. Vignesh 6-2, 6-1; Rohan Gajjar bt Shivang Mishra 6-4 , 7-6(1); Min-Hyoek Cho (Kor) bt Vivek Shokeen 6-3, 6-4; Tzu-Yang Lin (Tpe) bt Navdeep Singh 5-1 (retired); Ashwin Vijayaraghavan bt Varun Walia 6-1, 6-2; Vijay Kannan bt Tushar LIberhan 7-6(2), 3-0 (retired); Aditya Madkekar bt Kiran Nandakumar 6-0, 3-0 (retired); Vishnu Vardhan bt Leandro Ferreira (Bra) 7-6(10), 2-1 (retired); Vijayant Malik bt Katsushi Fukuda (Jpn) 6-3, 6-2.

Doubles: Pre-quarterfinals: Vijay Kannan/ Ashutosh Singh bt P.C. Vignesh/ Varun Walia 6-1, 6-2; Lance Vodicka (U.S.)/ Wang Yu Jr. (Chn) bt Sriram Balaji/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 6-4, 7-6(4).

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