The Hindu : Sport : Only three out of 13 Indians remain

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Only three out of 13 Indians remain

J. Raakesh Natraaj

— Photo: M. Vedhan

Resilient:Vishnu Vardhan fought back well to win in three sets against Niland Conor of Ireland in the first qualifying round.

Chennai: The Indian contingent in the qualifiers for the Aircel Chennai Open, which numbered an impressive 13 at the start of the day, was whittled down to just three at the end of the first round of matches, here at the SDAT tennis stadium at Nungambakkam, on Saturday.

Karan Rastogi's 7-6(4), 6-3 loss to Rajeev Ram in the morning set the tone for the hosts as ten other hopefuls bowed out without putting up much of a fight.

Shabaaz Khan was at the receiving end of a double bagel at the hands of Edouard Roger-Vasselin while Purav Raja only barely avoided a similar fate, going down 0-6, 1-6 to Alwxandre Kudryavtsev.

Sanam Singh, gold medallist at the Asian Games in the doubles division, was not able to carry over his form to the singles format, going down tamely to Franco Sugor. Singh started the match brightly, breaking Skugor straight away, but fizzled out after that, winning just two of the fourteen games that followed in the 6-1, 6-2 rout.

Vishnu Vardhan's win in three sets over Niland Conor provided some solace to the sparse crowd as the Indian rallied well to come back from being two-match points down in the second set, and a break down in the decider to clinch the contest. Trailing 2-4 in the third set, Vishnu Vardhan reeled off four games in a row to move to the second round of qualifying.

Karunuday Singh pulled off a 6-2, 6-2 win over Andreas Gremelmayr later in the day. Joining Vishnu Vardhan and Karunuday Singh in the second round of qualifying will be Wild Card Rupesh Roy, who beat compatriot Peranamallur Vignesh in three sets.

Two more qualifying rounds remain, at the end of which four players will proceed to the main draw of the ATP 250 event.

The results (qualifying, round one): Go Soeda (Jpn) bt Daniel Puttkammer (Ger) 5-2 retd.; Karunuday Singh (Ind) bt Andreas Gremelmayr (Ger) 6-2, 6-2; David Goffin (Bel) bt Akash Wagh (Ind) 6-1, 6-1; Ivo Minar (Cze) bt Vijay Sundar Prashanth (Ind) 6-1, 6-3; Edouard Roger-Vasselin (Fra) bt Shabaaz Khan (Ind) 6-0, 6-0; Franco Skugor (Cro) bt Sanam Singh (Ind) 6-1, 6-2; Evgeny Kirillov (Rus) bt Ajay Selvaraj (Ind) 6-4, 6-1; Milos Raonic (Can) bt Aldin Stekic (BIH) 6-2, 6-4; Vishnu Vardhan (Ind) bt Conor Niland (Ire) 4-6, 7-5, 6-4; Ante Pavic bt Aisam Ul-Haq Quereshi 6-4, 6-4; Rajeev Ram (USA) bt Karan Rastogi (Ind) 7-6(4), 6-3; Alexandre Kudryavtsev (Rus) bt Purav Raja (Ind) 6-0, 6-1; Konstantin Kravchuk (Rus) bt Divij Sharan 6-2, 7-6(3); Rupesh Roy (Ind) bt Vignesh Peranamallur (Ind) 6-4, 7-6(6); Leos Friedl (Cze) bt David Martin (USA) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; Yuichi Sugita (Jpn) Virali Murugesan Ranjeet (Ind) 6-3, 6-0 .

Corrections and Clarifications

The Sport Page report, “Only three out of 13 Indians remain” (January 2, 2011, early editions), said at one place that Roy beat Vignesh in straight sets. At another place, it said he beat Vignesh in three sets. “Straight sets” is correct. The error was corrected in City editions.

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