Manoj, Majumdar make merry at MSLTA

A little later, Vishaal Uppal, showed a mixure of what he calls a new-found fluency and unwarranted carelessness as he showed Nitin Kirtane the exit from the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association-organised event.

Czech third seed Radim Zitco cooked Vijay Kannan’s goose, chewing him up in 55 minutes 6-2, 6-0 while Saurav Panja served two successive double faults against fourth seed Per Thornadtsson (Sweden) to drop serve and match. The Swede won in two hours, 25 minutes 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 6-4 as Panja over-extended the Indian hospitality by gifting the last two points.

Uppal and Kirtane failed to infuse excitement on a day when the general proceedingswere as interesting as watching a refrigerator defrost. Uppal started like a new car battery, zipping up 2-0 with the help of one smooth backhand return of serve. Things slumped for the Delhi player as Kirtane put things in order.

But not for long as another backhand return replay got Uppal the break. He then nullified four Kirtane break point advantage to take the set 6-3.

Kirtane added to his quota of winners and a few volleys. He took the second set 6-2, saved four game points in the decider and at 2-2, it was a betting man’s dream situation.

But a break happened and Uppal moved up 4-2. Kirtane struggled to hold serve in the seventh game and finally kneeled down in the ninth to let his opponent have a go at Zitko.

RESULTS

First round (seedings in prefix, country, ranking in parenthesis): 3-Radim Zitko (Cze, 464) bt Vijay Kannan (Ind, 826) 6-2, 6-0; 4-Per Thornadtsson (Swe, 495) bt Saurav Panja (Ind, 874) 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 6-4; 5-Tom Chicoine (US, 500) bt Blake Brinklow (Aus, 1016) 6-2, 6-2;Kunj Majmudar (US) bt SK Shivshankar (Ind) 6-0, 6-2; Manoj Mahadevan (Ind, 1300) bt Vijendra Laad (Ind, 932) 6-2, 3-6, 6-2; Vishaal Uppal (Ind, 969) bt Nitin Kirtane (Ind, 828) 6-3, 2-6. 6-3

Doubles (first round): Tom Chicoine/Kunj Majmudar bt Chandrashekar Mohanty/Xavier Benjamin 6-1, 6-3; P Srinath/Andrei Youzhny bt Rohan Bopanna/S Praveen 6-3, 6-4; Doug Abraham/Harang Lee bt Vijendra Laad/Vasudeva Reddy 6-3, 6-2; Syed Fazaluddin/Niko Karagiannis bt Vijay Kannan/Manoj Mahadevan 6-0, 3-6, 6-3.