Twenty Indians in fray

HYDERABAD, OCT 18: The Indian Satellite Tennis Circuit was a big draw in the first couple of years of its introduction. It was when major...

HYDERABAD, OCT 18: The Indian Satellite Tennis Circuit was a big draw in the first couple of years of its introduction. It was when majority of the field used to be made up of foreign entries, while the Indians had to go through the qualifying rounds. Many a foreign player who was a part of the caravan then has made it big into the professional circuit.

In the last couple of years there has been a drop in foreign participation. Of the 32 entries for the singles main draw for the second-leg of this year’s Satellite Circuit, beginning at the APLTA complex here tomorrow, 20 are Indians.That Indian Davis Cupper Prahlad Srinath has secured his first Satellite title in Mumbai on Saturday is not so much because he has improved phenomenally in the last year as due to lack of sufficient competition at his level of the game.

Reinforcing this belief, the man that Srinath had beaten in the final was a qualifier playing his second Satellite tournament. This does not, however, mean that the Thai teenager, DanaiUdomchoke, was an easy prey for Srinath.

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11 Indians qualify: Eleven Indians and one each from Germany and Great Britain have qualified for the main draw. The Indians who made it are Ghouse Mustafa, Vishal Gupta, Saurav Panja, Srinivasan Pawan, Saif Ali, Sanzaruz Zaman, Avinash Arun, Rohan Bopanna, Kamala Kannan, Mohd Yaseer and Bose Kiran. The two foreigners are Ben Gudzelak (Britain) and Fahlke Gerhard (Germany).

Results of today’s qualifiers: Ghouse Mustafa (Ind) bt P Pawan (Ind) 6-1, 6-2, Fahlke Gerhard (Ger) bt P Ravikrishna (Ind) 6-1, 6-2; Vishal Gupta (Ind) bt Shetty (Ind) 6-2, 6-1; Saurav Panja (Ind) bt Rishi Sridhar (Ind) 6-2, 6-3; Srinivasan Pawan (Ind) bt Viplav (Ind) 6-4, 6-2, Saif Ali (Ind) bt Challa (Ind) 6-1, 6-3; Sanzarus Zaman (Ind) bt Dhoble (Ind) 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.

Investigators, including a bomb squad, combed the site. (Representational)

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