The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : All eyes on Yuki

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Monday, Mar 24, 2008
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All eyes on Yuki

GURGAON: The spotlight will be on Yuki Bhambri when the ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament begins at the NTA Complex here on Monday.

The 15-year-old has the game and the will to startle the established players at this level. Having reached the final of the ITF grade ‘I’ junior tournament in Malaysia, Bhambri will be razor sharp when he opens his campaign on Tuesday against the 713rd-ranked Elbert Sie of Indonesia.

Among the Indians, only the National hardcourt champion Ashutosh Singh is seeded, at No. 7.

The only Indian to qualify was V.M. Ranjeet while seven other slots were taken by the foreigners.

Yet, players like Vivek Shokeen, Harsh Mankad, Divij Sharan, Vijay Kannan, Navdeep Singh, Purav Raja and Rohan Gajjar are all capable of causing upsets on their day.

The seedings: 1. Mohammad Al Ghareeb (Kuw), 2. Sun Peng (Chn), 3. Bogdan-Victor Leonte (Rou), 4. Hyun-Woo Nam (Kor), 5. Aqeel Khan (Pak), 6. Syrym Abdukhalikov (Kaz), 7. Ashutosh Singh and 8. Wang Yu Jr. (Chn).

The results (qualifying second and final round): Danila Arsenov (Rus) bt Vijayant Malik 7-6(5), 2-6, 7-5; Ciaran Moore (RSA) bt Tushar Liberhan 6-4, 6-4; Vaja Uzakov (Uzb) bt Ilya Belyaev (Rus) 3-6, 6-2, 7-5; Sergei Krotiouk (Rus) bt Prajnesh Gunneswaran 6-3, 6-2; John McGahon (Irl) bt Yannick Nelord 6-1, 6-3; Idan Rosenberg (Isr) bt Rupesh Roy 6-3, 6-4; Katsushi Fukuda (Jpn) bt Du Ye (Chn) 6-4, 6-2; V. M. Ranjeet bt Rifat Biktyakov (Uzb) 6-2, 6-1. — Special Correspondent

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