Sridhar takes a crash Ghouse

MUMBAI, NOV 8: Mustafa Ghouse found Vinod Sridhar like a piece of sticking tape that refuses to come off the finger. Ghouse had two match...

MUMBAI, NOV 8: Mustafa Ghouse found Vinod Sridhar like a piece of sticking tape that refuses to come off the finger. Ghouse had two match points, dropped both to let Sridhar advance to the second round of the 6,250 ITF Satellite Tennis Circuit Masters at the G A Ranade Tennis Centre today.

Sridhar, following this 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 win, will play his first-leg nemesis No 4 seed Radim Zitco in the round of 16 as all eight seeded players got first round byes.

Manoj Mahadevan was the only one making full use of the chair umpire8217;s stop watch, playing for two hours, 46 minutes to lose to Josef Nesticky Cze 6-7 4-7, 6-1, 2-6 as other Indians bar Saurav Panja, Vasudeva Reddy, Akshay Vishal Rao, Nitin Kirtane and Ghouse advanced to the next round.

Vijay Kannan stamped all over Matthis Kempe-Bergman Swe, leaving such a deep impact that the Swede will find the imprints staying for a long time as he tries to wash off the 6-3, 6-2 loss. While Syed Fazaluddin served 11 aces to end Nitin Kirtane8217;s not-so-pleasant stint in this Circuit 6-1, 6-1.

And Vishaal Uppal, his stocks rising as the tournament progress, played 8220;constructively8221; to destruct Reddy8217;s one game advantage in an hour, 40 minutes 3-6, 6-1, 6-2. Staying on the baseline against his natural inkling to advance, Uppal now leads 2-1 overall against the Hyderabad player.

GHOUSE GROUSE: Ghouse came back from a 2-4 deficit in the opening set to take one-third of the match 6-4. Then, with two match points at 3-5, 15-40 Sridhar serving, Ghouse had parked himself into the second round when the towing began.

First was Sridhar8217;s forehand down the line, then a backhand netted and deuce was reached. Sridhar closed the game and now shed life support to take matters into his own hands as the other two-thirds of the match looked possible.

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He won the set 7-5 and the next 6-3, breaking Ghouse8217;s serve three successive times to gasp into the next round in one hour, 50 minutes.

Results country, ranking in parenthesis
Men8217;s singles 1st round:

Syed Fazaluddin Ind, 418 bt Nitin Kirtane Ind, 828 6-1, 6-1; Vinod Sridhar Ind, 693 bt Mustafa Ghouse Ind 4-6, 7-5, 6-3; Rohan Bopanna Ind, 1221 bt Akshay Vishal Rao Ind 6-3, 6-2; Mlynarik Zbynek Aut, 768 bt Balazs Veress Hun, 848 6-3, 7-6 7-3; Vijay Kannan Ind, 826 bt Matthis Kempe-Bergman Swe, 1300 6-3, 6-2; Vishaal Uppal Ind bt Vasudeva Reddy Ind 3-6, 6-1, 6-2; Van Wyk Coenie SA bt Saurav Panja Ind, 874 6-0, 6-4; Josef Nesticky Cze bt Manoj Mahadevan Ind, 1300 7-6 7-4, 1-6, 6-2.

Doubles quarter-finals: Prahlad Srinath/ Syed Fazaluddin bt Niko Karagiannis/ Doug Abraham 4-6, 7-6 7-2, 6-3; Sandeep/ Nitin Kirtane bt Rohan Bopanna/ Kedar Shah 7-5, 1-6, 6-4; Vijay Kannan/ Vasudeva Reddy bt Tom Chicoine/ Kunj Majmudar 6-7 4-7, 7-5 retired; Vishaal Uppal/ Mustafa Ghouse bt Thomas Messmer/ Balazs Veress 7-6 7-4, 3-6, 7-6 7-4.