Five Indians enter main draw

CHANDIGARH, Jan 10: Five Indian players today kept their hopes alive to gain entry from the qualifying draw of 64 into the main draw of 3...

CHANDIGARH, Jan 10: Five Indian players today kept their hopes alive to gain entry from the qualifying draw of 64 into the main draw of 32 in the 10,000 Gold Flake ITF Futures Men8217;s Tennis Tournament at the Chandigarh Club grass courts here today. Fifth-seed Harsh Mankad, with 862 ATP ranking, led the Indian challenge with second-round victories. Anand Radhakrishnan, Vishal Uppal WC, 1324, 14th seed Saurav Panja 1005 and Rohan Bopanna moved into the last qualifying round.

Harsh Mankad8217;s rival in the second round was another Indian, Anjan Viplav, who surrendered meekly to a Harsh Mankad 6-2, 6-0. However, Vishal Uppal had to put all his reserve energy to prevail over Giuseppe Menga 1136 of Italy in three sets 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. Saurav Panja had an easy opponent in Anup Minda, also of India. Panja won by dropping just two games each in both sets. The most creditable win for an Indian was that of Rohan Bopanna who shocked ninth seed Jun Kato 935 of Switzerland 6-3, 6-4. It was Bopanna8217;s second win in a single day as he had earlier defeated Gursharan Singh 6-2, 6-4.

Fourth-seed Aisam Qureshi of Pakistan , with 779 ATP ranking, will meet Panja for a qualifying berth. The Pakistani player ended the challenge of Markus Polessnig of Austria 7-6 6, 6-2. Second seed Simon Larose of Cananda toiled to overcome a stubborn Le Minh of the United States 6-4, 6-7 5, 6-3.

Seventh-seed Andrea Serra of Italy defeated a spirited Ari Strasberg of Israel 7-5, 6-4. Serra had at hand two opponents 8212; his rival as well as his bleeding nose. Immediately after starting his match on court No.1, his nose started bleeding. After the first aid, he inserted cotton in his nose to stop blood and continued to play like a lion-hearted player. In the second set, Serra 919 led 5-1 but his opponent rallied back to narrow the score to 4-5. Then serving powerfully, Serra wrapped up the match.

Two local wild cards, Akshay Vishal Rao and Sunil Kumar, lost their first round matches but were definitely not disgraced. Both players extended their respective powerful rivals to three sets. Akshay Vishal went down fighting to Serra 2-6, 7-5, 1-6. Gerhard Tschakert of Austria pipped Sunil Kumar 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

Results of qualifying rounds:
Ist round: Ondrej Chavpal Cze bt Mark Nerer Cro 6-7 5, 6-4, 6-3, Simon Hancock Gbr 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, Andrea Serra Ita bt Akshay Vishal Rao Ind 6-2, 5-7, 6-1, Ari Stranberg Isr bt Sidhharth Verma Ind 6-1, 3-6, 6-4, Rohan Bopanna Ind bt Gursharan Singh Ind 6-2, 6-4, Jun Kato Sui bt Shailesh Dhoble Ind 3-6, 7-5, 6-1, Maciej Domka Pol bt Hubert Suppan Aut 6-3, 6-4.