Leander cruises

New Delhi, August 12: Second seeded Leander Paes breezed through his first round match against Peter Luxa at the Binghamton Challenger. Paes won 6-1, 6-2. He now plays Italian World No 149, Cristiano Caratti, on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Manisha Malhotra finished runner-up at the 10,000 Futures at Southseas, England losing 6-7, 3-6 to Elini Danilidou of Greece in the final.

Manisha, who was ranked No 866 last week, has had a very successful tournament, toppling the fifth seed in the first round, and then the fourth seed, the No 381 ranked Kate Warne-Holland of Britain in the semi-finals.

In the quarter-finals, she beat S Bensch of Germany, ranked No 733, 6-1, 6-0. This should give her about eight points, including bonus points for the upsets, and will take her into the 700 mark in next week8217;s rankings.