Fazaluddin and Srinath keep Indian flag flying

By Kalyan Ashok

KOLKATA, JAN. 16. On a hectic second day's schedule which featured 14 singles matches, Indian Davis Cupper Syed Fazaluddin revived the flagging Indian interest in the ITF Futures tennis championship when he packed off the third seed, Suwandi Suwandi of Indonesia, 7-5, 6-3 in 93 minutes to make the last-16 round. Prahlad Srinath then joined Fazaluddin by ousting the unseeded Briton Oliver Freelove 7-5, 6- 2.

Playing on his home turf, Fazaluddin was in his element, blasting his big serves and getting his volleys and returns right to put pressure on the Indonesian, ranked 420 on the ATP list. Though the first set was a long affair, Fazaluddin maintained the edge despite conceding an early break and went on to clinch the set.

In the second, it was a romp for the Indian who had gained control over his rival by then. ``It is an important win for me and it gives the right confidence for the second round,'' said the Calcuttan, who next meets Luke Milligan of Great Britain.

Srinath was pushed in the first set by Freelove, who was consistent with his returns, but the Indian stepped up the tempo and slammed home winners from both flanks.

The other four Indians in the fray were disappointing. Saurav Panja quickly crashed against Iker Bilbao of Spain while Vishal Uppal came a cropper against another Spaniard, Vincent Allegre 4- 6, 4-6. The two qualifiers, Mustafa Ghouse and Vijay Kannan, also bowed out. Third seed Martin Spottl of Austria proved too good for Vijay and won 6-4, 6-1, while Ghouse went down to Michal Navratil of the Czech Republic 4-6, 4- 6.

The biggest casualty of the day, however, was the champion at Jorhat last week, Denis Gremelmayr. He went down to the seventh seed Juraj Hasko of Slovakia. Hasko, who had crashed out in the opening round last week, kept the big hitting German on a leash with a steady baseline game and there was little Gremelmayr could do against the Slav who played on his nerves.

Bad boy Tomashevich

The second seed, Dmitri Tomashevich, found himself on the wrong side of the chair and was embroiled in an unsavoury incident in his encounter against Marwan Zewar of Egypt. It all began after the two players split the first two sets, Tomashevich taking the first 6-3 and the Egyptian the second 2-6.

The decider had moved into a climactic tie-breaker when Zewar belted a cross-court winner to level the tie-break score 1-1. Tomashevich contended that the ball had been broken and the point had to replayed. This was rejected by the chair umpire, Joy Mukherjee, who ruled that the point had already been awarded and the condition of the ball had nothing do with it. Tomashevich did not buy that argument and insisted that the point be replayed. The ITF supervisor, Mr. Romain Martens, who was called in, stuck with the chair umpire and felt that the point should stay. At this stage, Tomashevich flew into a rage, rushed to the net and removed the singles stick and broke it into three pieces. He was slapped with code violation, and though he resumed play and went on to take the tie-breaker 7-6 (7-4), the fiery Uzbek was penalised by the ITF supervisor for his unruly conduct.

Top seed Artem Derepasko of Russia played truant and his place went to the lucky loser, Fred Hemmes of Netherlands who was a quarterfinalist at Jorhat. Hemmes grabbed his chance and made the second round with a 2-5, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Dmitri Sitak of Russia.

The results:

Singles (first round): Jarolsav Levinsky (Cze) bt Hendri Susilo Pramono (Ina) 6-4, 6-3; Dmitri Tomashevich (Uzb) bt Marwan Zewar (Egy) 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7-4); Fred Hemmes (Ned) bt Dmitri Sitak (Rus) 2-6, 6-4, 6-2; Martin Spottl (Ger) bt Vijay Kannan (Ind) 6- 4, 6-4; Syed Fazaluddin (Ind) bt Suwandi Suwandi (Ina) 7-5, 6-3; Vincent Allegre (Esp) bt Vishal Uppal (Ind) 6-4, 6-4; Fabio Maggi (Ita) bt Sergei Krotouk (Rus) 6-3, 6-1; Luke Milligan (GBR) bt Viktor Bruthans (Svk) 6-2, 6-2; Andreas Fasching (Aut) bt James Nelson (GBR) 6-1, 6-1; Iker Bilbao (Esp) bt Saurav Panja (Ind) 6- 2, 6-4; Juraj Hasko (Svk) bt Denis Gremelmayr (Ger) 6-3, 6-4; Prahlad Srinath (Ind) bt Oliver Freelove (GBR) 7-5, 6-2; James Auckland (GBR) bt Josef Nesticky (Cze) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

Doubles (first round): Levinsky/Navratil (Cze) bt Anand Radhakrishnan (Ind)/Sitak (Rus) 7-5, 6-3; Pramono /Suwandi Suwandi (Ina) bt Maggi (Ita)/Nitin Kirtane (Ind) 6-4, 4- 6, 7-6 (7-3); Youzhny (Rus)/Zewar (Egy) bt de Voest/September (RSA) 6-3, 6-1.

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