Bopanna, Mankad make their first-round exit

The Inddian challenge, however, was sustained with some American help as Prakash Amritraj, son of Vijay Amritraj based in the US, moved into the second round with 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 victory over Noam Behr of Israel.

The second seed and champion in Bangalore, Gregory Carraz of France, had to sweat little as his opponent Bulgarian Radoslav Lukaev complained of stomach upset and retired after only two games. The scores were level 1-1 at that stage.

Gouichi Motomura had tasted defeat in these courts two months ago when he played as part of the Japanese team in the Davis Cup tie. His luck here, however, seems to have changed little as he went out to Jonathan Erlich of Israel 5-7, 7-5, 4-6.

For Bopanna, the last two weeks had been disappointing. He had lost in the second round in Bangalore, and here it was even worse.

Even in the first set when he fought back to make up for a drop of serve, he did not really gain the upperhand over Udomchoke who kept him on the toes with his steady return and forehands.

The turning point might have come in the 11th game when the Thai gained three set points at 0-40 on Bopanna’s serve. Bopanna managed to reach deuce but his serve suddenly deserted him at this crucial stage and after denying three advantages to his opponent, he conceded the set on the fourth with a double fault. Mankad could hardly give such excuses as Vlasov proved a superior player on this day. The Russian had won a $10,000 event at the same venue in Janaury defeating Bopanna in the final.

Vlasov earned his first break in the fifth game of the first set when Mankad’s forehand sailed long. The Russian himself faced a 15-40 situation in the next game but his confidence was so high that he just drew a couple of strong first serves out of the bag to climb out of the hole.

And once he lost serve in the first game of the next set, Mankad was always fighting a lost cause.