Sukumar knocked out

PUNE, May 13: Wild card entrant Ajay Ramaswami who has the potential of being a percentage player, sounded a warning to the top players of ...

PUNE, May 13: Wild card entrant Ajay Ramaswami who has the potential of being a percentage player, sounded a warning to the top players of the Indian tennis fraternity, when he knocked out fifth-seed Anand Sukumar of Karnataka in the first round of the men8217;s singles event, thus marking the first upset in the Western India tennis tournament for the Rocket Trophy at the Deccan Gymkhana courts today.

Ramaswami, a Batra Tennis Academy student, who was the national under-16 champion last year, displayed his growing stature in his 6-1 6-2 annhilation of Sukumar.

Also joining him in the day8217;s list of heroes was the unseeded Karnataka-lad DR Jayadeva, who served out the off-coloured sixth-seed Intikhab Ali in straight sets 6-0 6-0 in the evening session. This apart, all the other six seeded players made it into the pre-quarterfinal round with straight-set wins over respective rivals.

Unseeded player Vijay Kannan of Delhi fought his heart out against the second seed KV Ganesh of Tamil Nadu, but lost in the nail biting first set 5-7 and then went down 4-6 in the grueling second set.

In the women8217;s doubles event, the unseeded pair of Reetu Sethi and Mable Abraham upset the fourth seeded Aparna Srinivasan and Nehal Chopra 6-4 6-2. Results seeding in prefix

Men8217;s singles first round: 1-Vasudev Reddy AP bt S Narendranath Mah 6-2 6-2; Ajay Ramaswami Mah bt 5-Anand Sukumar Kar 6-1 6-2; Y Sandeep AP bt Anjan Viplav AP 6-2 6-2; 8-CV Anand TN bt Shikha Singh Mah 6-2 6-2; 4-P Srinath Kar bt M Vijaykumar AP 6-2 6-0; Bhaskar Chowdhary Asm bt Ankush Chhabra Mah 6-2 6-0; Umang Chhada Guj bt R Balaji TN 6-3 6-3; 3-Nitin Kirtane Mah bt S Zaman Ben 6-0 6-1; 7-Shailesh Dhoble Mah bt Ronney Sarkar Ben 6-0 1-0 conceded; DR Jayadeva Kar bt 6-Intikhab Ali Mah 6-0 6-0; K Shivshankar Kar bt Vijayendra Laad Mah 6-1 6-1; Amod Wakalkar Mah bt Girish Ramchandani Guj 6-2 6-1; Rohan Wadhera Del bt Paraj Natekar Mah 4-6 6-3 6-2; 2-KV Ganesh TN bt Vijay Kumar Del 7-5 6-4.