The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Paes & Bhupathi advance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 19, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Paes & Bhupathi advance

s’Hertogenbosch: Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi kept the Indian hopes alive in the Ordina Open by advancing to the doubles semifinals on a day when Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna bowed out of the $175,000 tennis tournament on Wednesday.

The second seeded Indian pair sailed past Spaniards David Ferrer and Marcel Granollers 6-2, 6-1 to advance to the last four stage.

Sania crashes out

However, India’s singles challenge ended with Sania crashing out with a 2-6, 2-6 loss to Dutch Michaella Krajicek, and Bopanna going down to 2-6, 4-6 to Argentine Guillermo Canas in the second round of women’s and men’s sections respectively.

Wednesday’s defeat means that Sania remains winless against Krajicek at 0-4. The loss also marks a disappointing end to the Indian girl’s build-up for next week’s Wimbledon.

In the lopsided match, Sania struggled to find her feet from the very start and lost her serve twice before Krajicek raced to a 5-1 lead in the first set that lasted barely half an hour.

The Indian could not recover from the opening setback and was thoroughly outplayed in the second set as well with Krajicek hardly breaking a sweat to finish it off in another 25 minutes.

Qualifier Bopanna was clueless in his match against Canas, also a qualifier but who has to his credit a win over World No.1 Roger Federer last year.

The one-sided encounter lasted little over an hour.

Sunitha, Prakash lose

Meanwhile, Sunitha Rao and Prakash Amritraj failed to advance in the Wimbledon qualifiers with both the players going down in the second round in London.

Sunitha, India’s second highest ranked player, lost 4-6, 2-6 to 15th seed Russian Olga Puchkova.

Earlier, Amritraj put up a spirited performance but lost to 13th seed Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky 3-6, 6-1, 3-6.

Stepanek pulls out

At Nottingham, top-seeded Radek Stepanek pulled out of the Nottingham Open with a rib injury and said he might not be fit to play in next week’s Wimbledon.

Stepanek said he was diagnosed with a muscle tear after Tuesday’s win over John Isner of the United States, and was in pain on Wednesday morning after hitting practice shots.

The Czech player was due to play Vince Spadea of the United States at the Wimbledon warm-up tournament.

Stepanek is seeded 16th at Wimbledon, which starts on Monday.

His withdrawal at Nottingham comes a day after sixth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov of Russia was kicked out for storming off the court during a doubles match after disputing a line call. Tursunov and Chris Haggard of South Africa were trailing 6-4, 3-1 to Italian pair Simone Bolelli and Andreas Seppi in Tuesday’s match. ATP rules state that no player can leave the court without the umpire’s consent.

The results: At Nottingham: ATP Slazenger Open: Second round: Vince Spadea w/o Radek Stepanek; Fernando Verdasco bt Bobby Reynolds 6-2, 6-3; Ivo Karlovic bt Sam Querrey 7-6(3), 7-6(14); Gilles Simon bt Samuel Groth 6-7(1), 6-4, 6-4; Gael Monfils bt Julien Benneteau 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

At ‘s-Hertogenbosch: Ordina Open: Men: Second round: Victor Troicki bt Ivan Ljubicic 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(5); Guillermo Canas bt Rohan Bopanna 6-2, 6-4; Arnaud Clement bt Marcel Granollers 6-7(8), 6-3, 6-3; Juan-Martin Del Potro bt Rainer Schuttler 7-6(3), 7-6(5). Doubles (quarterfinals): Leander Paes & Mahesh Bhupathi bt David Ferrer & Marcel Granollers 6-2, 6-1.

Women: Second round: Elena Dementieva bt Sara Errani 6-3, 7-5; Katarina Srebotnik bt Chan Yung-Jan 6-4, 6-3; Michaella Krajicek bt Sania Mirza 6-2, 6-2; Tamarine Tanasugarn bt Ashley Harkleroad 4-6, 6-4, 7-5; Sorana Cirstea bt Mariya Koryttseva 7-6(3), 6-4.

At Eastbourne: International Women’s Open: Second round: Caroline Wozniacki bt Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2, 6-2; Marion Bartoli bt Sybille Bammer 6-3, 6-0; Ekaterina Makarova bt Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-3; Gisela Dulko bt Olga Govortsova 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-2; Samantha Stosur bt Amélie Mauresmo 1-2 retired.; Alisa Kleybanova bt Aravane Rezai 6-3, 5-7, 6-3. — Agencies

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport