Mankad stumbles

MUMBAI, DEC 27: It will be another case of a bitter-sweet start to the Indian challenge in the 50,000 Mumbai ATP Challenger being organi...

MUMBAI, DEC 27: It will be another case of a bitter-sweet start to the Indian challenge in the 50,000 Mumbai ATP Challenger being organised by Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association MSLTA at the GA Ranade Tennis Centre.

With the elimination of Harsh Mankad in the final qualifying round today, Indian entries in the main singles draw has been restricted to the four wild cards to Prahlad Srinath, Mahesh Bhupathi, Syed Fazaluddin and Vijay Kannan.

The qualifying round was so strong that almost every player had some ATP points, resulting in most Indians making an early exit.

This may not be a pretty start to a year which promises to be good for Indian tennis with plenty of points and money to be won from tournaments in the country.

Only Srinath, the second highest Indian in the ATP singles list, made a mark at Ahmedabad by entering the quarters. The rest, including Mahesh Bhupathi, guilty of playing too many tournaments in recent times, disappointed.

But MSLTA with its newly-laid DecoTurf court andfloodlights, will look at this tournament with pride going into the new year. The newly-named GA Ranade Tennis Centre is only the first step in what the organisers claim to be a year full of achievements for them.

Action begins here tomorrow with top seed David Caldwell USA, ranked 182 taking on Gregory Carraz of France. The only Indian drawn to play on the opening day is Vijay Kannan, who will take on Andrei Merinov under floodlights. Davis Cupper Prahlad Srinath is scheduled to with teammate Syed Fazalddin in the first round, while Mahesh Bhupathi will take on sixth seed Eyal Ryan of Israel, ranked nearly 200 rungs above him. Winners of these two matches will clash in the pre-quarter-final.

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The organisers meanwhile announced wildcards to the doubles pairs Mahesh Bhupathi and Gaurav Natekar, Syed Fazaluddin and Sebastian Dechaunac, and Vijay Kannan and Anthony Dupius, while Nitin and Sandeep Kirtane have been directly accepted into the doubles main draw.

Seedings

/B>Singles: 1 DavidCaldwell USA, 182, 2 Razwan Sabau Rom, 193, 3 Anthony Dupuis Fra, 208, 4 Lior Mor Isr, 213, 5 Oleg Ogrodev Uzb, 225, 6 Eyal Ran Isr, 230, 7 Oren Motevassel Isr, 234, 8 Goichi Motomura Jap, 236.

Doubles: 1 Noam Behr/ Eyal Ran Isr, 2 Ivan Lujbicic Cro/ Goichi Motumara Jap, 3 Noam Okun/ Nir Welgreen Isr, 4 Gregory Carraz/ Regis Lavergne Fra.

Results Men8217;s Singles final qualifying round: Kobi Ziv Isr bt Harsh Mankad Ind 6-1, 6-1; Mashika Washington USA bt Aisan Qureshi Pak 2-6, 6-4, 6-2; Sebestian Dechaunac Fra bt Arvind Parmar GBr 6-4, 6-3; Olivere Mutis Fra bt Lavergne Regis Fra 6-2, 6-3.