Mankad, S Kirtane advance with contrasting wins

After pocketing the first set 6-1 in just 25 minutes, Sandeep blanked his rival out in the 18-minute second set.

The Mumbai-born-and-bred Mankad, now training in USA and ranked 690 in the world, had a tough time against the 875th-ranked Kannan. Both players hung on to their serves in the first eight games. However, Kannan held his serves with relative ease, in contrast to Mankad.

Mankad broke through in the 9th — a game which went to six deuces. Kannan lost his rhythm and served three double faults, to help his rival’s cause.

A well-timed forehand down the line giving Mankad the decisive break. Mankad held serve in the 10th with an ace to clinch the first set 6-4 in 50 minutes.

Bouyed by the upswing in his fortunes, Mankad piled the pressure on Kannan in the second set. The rhythm gone, Kannan struggled to hold serve in the first game on the second set which went to two deuces.

Mankad got stronger as the match progressed, winning his opening serve of the second set with two aces and then broke through for a 2-1 lead.

However, Kannan broke back in the fourth to level scores. The trend against the serve was sustained as Mankad execurted two excellently returns to break back again in the next game. Mankad held on to his lead to clinch the set — and with it the match — 6-2 in 28 minutes.

Mankad admitted that Kannan was a tough opponent. “He was serving very well and I thought if I could return his serve, I stand a chance,” said Mankad. “After the nineth game of the first set, I started finding my game, and that did help a lot” he added.

On the other hand, Kannan was clueless as to what went wrong.

These were the only two singles matches that held on the opening day. With the threat of monsoon looming large, organisers may find hard to clear the accumulated back-log, if the heaves open up.

Results (men’s singles) first round: Harsh Mankad (Ind) bt Vijay Kannan (Ind) 6-4 6-2, Sandeep Kirtane (Ind) bt CS Mohanty (Ind) 6-1 6-0.

Men’s doubles (first round): Patric Stalbark/PerThornatsson (Swe) bt Sangram Chapekar/Vijendra Laad (Ind) 6-3 6-1, Harsh Mankad/ Ajay Ramaswamy (Ind) bt Rohan Bopanna/Rishi Sridhar (Ind) 6-3 3-6 6-3, Mustafa Ghouse/Vishal Uppal (Ind) bt Manoj Mahadevan/Amod Wakalkar (Ind) 6-3 6-7 (6-8) 6-3, Mitun Murali/Mukundan Nandakumar (Ind) bt Arun Avinash/S Kanbargimath (Ind) 1-6 6-1 7-6 (9-7), N Kirtane/S Panja (Ind) bt P Chaturvedi/CS Mohanty (Ind) 6-2 6-3, A Gavirlov/A Sikanov (Rus) bt B Fulcher (GB)/Vijay Kannan (Ind) 6-4 6-4.