Swede nothings for Fazaluddin

PUNE, NOV 2: Per Thornadtsson must know a thing or two about reading body language. His canny anticipation in reacting to Syed Fazaluddin...

PUNE, NOV 2: Per Thornadtsson must know a thing or two about reading body language. His canny anticipation in reacting to Syed Fazaluddin8217;s movement on court was so close to perfection that he seldom executed a wrong shot. The 6-1, 6-1 verdict over the Indian Davis Cupper spoke ample measure for the Swede8217;s prowess in the first round of third leg ITF Satellite tennis circuit third leg at Deccan Gymkhana courts here today.

It took almost 80 minutes for the 21-year-old fifth seeded Scandinavian to shut-out the India No 4. Fazal, ranked 418 in the world, but unseeded for the third leg due to poor circuit points he was knocked-out in the first round, first leg and reached quarters in second leg, looked totally out of depth today and played like a novice against the player who is placed 77 ranks below him. Thornadtsson broke the 26-year-old Indian twice in the second and fourth game of the first set. The Kolkotta-based Fazal could hold his serve only in the sixth and that after saving three break points. Inthe second set Thornadtsson took an early lead, breaking Fazal in the first game and then followed with breaks in third, fifth and seventh thus putting an end to Fazal8217;s unimpressive run in this Satellite.

Second leg winner and third seed Indian Prahlad Srinath and sixth seed Sandeep Kirtane survived a scare while enduring the grind of three setters before overcoming their respective opponents. Srinath took one hour, 20 minutes to quell the challenge of Manoj Mahadevan 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 while Sandeep bounced back from a first-set loss to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 against qualifier Van Wyk Coenie of South Africa in one hour, 50 minutes.

However, the only cheer for the Indian camp was provided by unseeded Nitin Kirtane, who upstaged the eighth seed Andrei Youzhny of Russia, the Pune-based player winning 6-3, 6-3 in one hour, 15 minutes.

Nitin, a left-handed baseliner, broke the Russian in the fifth and ninth game of the first set and later in the second and sixth games in the second set before dropping his serve inthe fifth.

Results
1st roundseedings in prefix, country, ranking
1-Tom Chicoine USA, 500 bt Niko Karagiannis Gre, 969 6-2, 4-6, 6-2; Mlynarik Zbynek Aut, 768 bt Rom John USA 6-1, 6-1; Akshay Vishal Rao Ind bt Narendran Ranganathan Ind 1-6, 6-0, 6-2; 7-Kunj Majmudar USA, 1232 bt Saurav Panja Ind, 874 6-1, 6-3; 4-Thomas Messmer Ger, 949 bt Blake Brinklow Aus 6-1, 7-6 7-4; Rohan Boppana Ind, 1221 bt Mathais Bergman-Kempe Swe, 1300 6-4, 6-3; Balazs Veress Hun, 848 bt Shivshankar Kambargimath Ind 6-4, 6-2; 6-Sandeep Kirtane Ind, 782 bt Van Wyk Coenie SA 3-6, 6-3, 6-3; 5-Per Thornadtsson Swe, 495 bt Syed Fazaluddin Ind, 418 6-1, 6-1; Vishal Uppal Ind bt Vijendra Laad Ind 6-1, 7-5; Mustafa Ghouse Ind bt Kedar Tembe Ind 6-2, 7-6 4; 3-Prahlad Srinath Ind, 312 bt Manoj Mahadevan Ind, 1300 7-5, 3-6, 6-3; Nitin Kirtane Ind, 828 bt 8-Andrei Youzhny Rus, 1069 6-3, 6-3; Vijay Kannan Ind, 826 bt Vinod Shridhar Ind, 693 6-4, 4-6, 6-1;Josef Nesticky Cze bt Sunil Kumar Ind 6-4, 6-4 2-Radim Zitko Cze, 464 bt Vasudeva Reddy Ind, 874 6-0, 6-2.