Ghouse-Uppal champs

Earlier, National champions Vishaal Uppal and Mustafa Ghouse closed a doubles title, their third after May’s Satellite Masters, beating Niko Karagiannis (Greece) and Syed Fazaluddin 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in about two hours. The duo could not master the Greek’s serve but broke him once for a 5-1 lead in the second set; a definite boost after the first set debacle.

Egged on by Ghouse who led by example, Uppal earned the crucial break in the decider when his forehand return of Fazaluddin’s serve kissed the net and moved out of thehuge Karagiannis’ reach, for a 5-4 lead. The Indian duo had earlier failed to break Fazaluddin at 2-2 despite holding four break points.

Ghouse then held nerve and serve to gets his hands on the winner’s trophy of the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association-organised event and share Rs 33,200 with Uppal.

CONSISTENT ZITKO: The third seeded Zitko saved two set points in the opening set before Messmer could take lead. The Czech, hitting groundstroke winners with mundane regularity, was 4-2 up with a break in the sixth game of the second set, and then saved a break point to go 5-2 up.

Then came time out as Messmer had his back attended to. Though he returned to action, the German’s will had eroded. He earned a break of serve but Zitko continued to slam winners to level terms.

The opening game of the decider had the Czech saving six game points before he could hold serve. The 21-year-old then on was unstoppable while Messmer, once ranked 20 among juniors in the world, just could not savehimself.

RESULTS OF FINAL (SEEDINGS IN PREFIX; COUNTRY, RANKING IN PARENTHESIS)

MEN SINGLES: 3-Radim Zitko (Cze, 464) bt Thomas Messmer (Ger, 949) 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

DOUBLES: Mustafa Ghouse/ Vishaal Uppal bt Syed Fazaluddin/ Niko Karagiannis 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.