The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Bopanna retires hurt

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Thursday, Dec 06, 2007
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Bopanna retires hurt

Principal Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The chill in Delhi weather spoiled Rohan Bopanna’s chances of gaining crucial ATP points ahead of the Australian Open qualifying tournament as he retired midway through his pre-quarterfinal clash with Sunil Kumar Sipaeya, in the SAIL Open ATP Challenger tennis tournament here on Wednesday.

Bopanna suffered back strain during the second set when he was up 5-1. He took a break and returned to serve but the niggling pain forced him to take another medical break before the top-ranked Indian pulled with Sipaeya leading 6-4, 1-6, 4-2.

After the two weeks of Challenger tennis that offered crucial ATP points, Bopanna ended up with just five points. In this context Bopanna will rue his decision to skip the ATF Asia Cup, which offered good money but no ATP points.

Wildcard Sipaeya’s dream run here will be on test when he takes on Pakistan’s Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi. Injuries and retirements was the order of the day as the top seeded Kristian Pless of Denmark was hit by yet another ankle injury.

Playing against qualifier Ilia Marchenko of Ukraine, Pless lost the first set 6-1 and was down 1-0 when the Dane decided to call off the contest.

Sergeyev survived the ‘black day’ for the seeded players as he rallied from a set down to beat Russian Dmitry Vlasov 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Besides the second-seeded Qureshi and Sergeyev, Russia’s Michail Elgin is the only seed remaining in the draw. Elgin defeated Dekel Valtzer of Israel 7-6(3), 6-2 to set up a quarterfinal meeting with Frenchman Sebastien de Chaunac, who rallied to beat Pavel Chekhov of Russia 4-6, 7-6(9), 7-5.

In the doubles event, the host’s campaign ended as three Indian pairs and an Indo-American combination lost in the quarterfinals.

Top-seeded pair of Patrick Briaud of the U.S. and Alexey Kerdriouk of Kazakhstan defeated Karan Rastogi and his American partner Nathan Thompson 6-4, 6-2.

The results:

Pre-quarterfinals: Ilia Marchenko (Ukr) bt Kristian Pless (Den) 6-3, 1-0 retd., Ivan Sergeyev (Ukr) bt Dmitry Vlasov (Rus) 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, Sebastien de Chaunac (Fra) bt Pavel Chekhov (Rus) 4-6, 7-6(9), 7-5, Michail Elgin (Rus) bt Dekel Valtzer (Isr) 7-6(3), 6-2, Alberto Francis (USA) bt Joshua Goodall (Gbr) 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, Tomas Cakl (Cze) bt Adrian Menendez (Esp) 6-2, 6-2, Sunil Kumar Sipaeya bt Rohan Bopanna 6-4, 1-6, 4-2 retd.

Doubles: Quarterfinals: Patrick Briaud (USA) and Alexey Kedriouk (Kaz) bt Karan Rastogi and Nathan Thompson (USA) 6-4, 6-2, Xin-Yuan Yu (Chn) and Shao-Xuan Zeng (Chn) bt Vijay Sunder Prashanth and Murugesan 6-4, 6-0, Martin Slanar (Aut) and Valtzer bt Vivek Shokeen and Ashutosh Singh 7-6 (5), 6-4, Pavel Chekhov (Rus) and Michail Elgin (Rus) bt Sunil Kumar Sipaeya and Purav Raja 6-4, 6-4.

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