Sridhar pips Uppal at the post

Sridhar took four games in a row from down 3-5 to clinch the opening set in which both players played aggressively and took every opportunity to make forays at the net.

In the second set, Sridhar hit his return deep. However, Uppal was equal to the task. In fact, Sridhar had to ward off five deuces in the 8th game before holding serve. The issue meandered into tie-breaker which Uppal won 7-5 to come level-pegging.

Sridhar took early command of the decider by taking a 4-0 lead. However, he could not sustain the good work, finding his first serve hit the nets repeatedly to allow Uppal draw level at 4-4.

A dubious line call at a crucial stage of the tenth game went against Sridhar. But in the ensuring tie-break, Sridhar fired two aces to take lead 3-0 and stayed ahead to clinch the match.

An upbeat Sridhar said: “The victory meant a lot to me. I have never beaten Vishal before, though I knew I could do it.”

Top seed Danai Udomchoke (Thailand) sidelined Patril StalBark (Sweden) 6-0, 6-3 in just 49 minutes, while second seed Per Thornadtsson defeated Rohan Bopanna (India) 6-4, 6-3 in 72 minutes.

Mustafa Ghouse (India) made fifth seed Barry Fulcher struggle before bowing out 6-7 (4-7), 5-7 in one hour and 45 minutes. It was a well-contest encouter in which the Indian showed good command and control from the forecourt.

1st round results (seedings in prefix)

1-Danai Udomchoke (Tha) bt Patril Stalbark (Swe) 6-0 6-3, 2-Per Thornadtsson (Swe) bt Rohan Bopanna (Ind) 6-4 6-3, Rishi Sridhar (Ind) bt 3-Vishal Uppal (Ind) 7-5 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5), 5-Barry Fulcher (GB) bt Mustafa Ghouse (Ind) 7-6 (7-4) 7-5, 7-Vinod Sridhar (Ind) bt Tushar Gautam (Ind) 6-1 6-1, 8-Kunj Majmudar (USA) bt Ravi Shankar Pathanjali (Ind) 6-2 6-2, Alexandre Sikanov (Rus) bt Phoemphon Atabut (Tha) 6-1 6-0, Manoj Mahadevan (Ind) bt Vikrant Chadha (Ind) 6-1, 6-3, Gwenael Gueit (Fra) bt Akshay Vishal Rao (Ind) 6-3 6-1, John Rom (USA) bt Vijendra Laad (Ind) 6-2 6-1, Kedar Shah (Ind) bt Arun Avinash (Ind) 6-2 6-2, Amod Wakalkar (Ind) bt Abhishek Jagnani (Ind) 7-6 (7-3) 6-0, Saurav Panja (Ind) bt Kamala Kannan (Ind) 6-4 6-4, Marian Leysek (SVK) bt Alexey Gavrilov (Rus) 6-3 5-7 7-6 (8-6)

Doubles (1st round): Charapol Khamsamarn/ DanaiUdomchoke (Tha) bt Akshay Jagdale/ Vinod Sridhar (Ind) 7-5 6-2, Vikrant Chadha (Ind)/ Kunj Majmudar (USA) bt Kedar Shah (Ind)/ Gwenael Gueit (Fra) 6-4 6-4