Manisha in doubles final

NEW DELHI, JUNE 30. Manisha Malhotra continued with her success in doubles, and reached the final of the $25,000 ITF women's circuit tennis tournament in Bastad, Sweden.

Manisha with partner Leanne Baker of New Zealand defeated Olga Blahotova and Gabriela Navratilova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-3 to make the final.

Fourth-seeded Daniela Klemenschitis and Sandra Klemenschitis of Austria, ousted the second-seeded pair of Amanda Hopmans of the Netherlands and Patty van Acker of Belgium 6-4, 6-1 in the other semifinal.

Manisha and Leanne had beaten Inga Albers and Adriana Jerabek of Germany 7-5, 6-7 (0-7), 6-0 in the quarterfinals.

The 345th ranked Manisha, however, could not progress in singles in Bastad, as she lost in the first round to the 151st ranked top seed Amanda Hopmans 2-6, 1-6.

Indians do well in doubles

Vikrant Chadha showed his prowess in doubles in the $10,000 ITF Futures tournament in Lachine, Canada, as he reached the final with James Shorthall of New Zealand.

Vikrant and James defeated Adam Baranowski and Michal Ciszek of Canada 6-4, 6-2 in the first round; the fourth-seeded Domenic Marafiote and Matthew Yeates of Australia 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinals and Manoj Mahadevan and Simon Shen of the US 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) in the semifinals.

Manoj and his US partner beat Hiroki Kondo and Takahiro Terachi of Japan - the No.1 and 2 seeds respectively in singles - 6-4, 6- 4 in the first round and second-seeded Dominic Boulet of Canada and Benjamin Cassaigne of France 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (6-8), 6-3 in the quarterfinals.

Harsh Mankad made it to the semifinals in doubles along with Cary Franklin of the US. The Indo-US pair beat the third-seeded Mustafa Ghouse and Rishi Sridhar 6-4, 6-3 in the first round, and Akira Matsushita and Masashide Sakamoto of Japan 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-4 in the quarterfinals. The duo will meet the top-seeded Andrew Nisker of Canada and Tripp Phillips of the US in the semifinals.

Earlier in singles, Vikrant Chadha did well to make the quarterfinals, in which he lost to the fourth-seeded Benjamin Cassaigne 4-6, 4-6. He had a creditable 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 victory over Michael Tebbutt of Australia in the pre-quarterfinals.

Harsh Mankad lost in the second round to Matt Klinger of Canada 6-7 (5-7), 3-6.

Ramaswami loses

Unlike Harsh Mankad who announced his return into the professional circuit with a bang by winning the $10,000 Futures tournament in Mississauga, Canada, Ajay Ramaswami made a modest return losing in the first round of singles and doubles in the $10,000 ITF Futures tournament in Quogue, New York.

Ajay lost 1-6, 4-6 to qualifier Toshihide Matsui of Japan. He was the last direct acceptance in doubles with Oscar Johansson of Sweden, and the duo lost 4-6, 4-6 to Huntley Montgomery and Brian Vahaly of the US. Alok Bhide lost in the first round to the seventh- seeded Doug Root of the US 2-6, 3-6.

Akshay Jagdale did well to win two rounds in the qualifying event before losing in the final round to Andrew Colombo of the US 4-6, 3-6. Akshay beat Donni Opici of the US 6- 2, 6-0 in the first round and Alexander Nikolic of Germany 6-3, 6-3 in the second round.

Anand Radhakrishnan lost in the first qualifying round 1-6, 1-6 to Steve Paskiewicz of the US.

Shruti ousted

Shruti Dhawan could not sustain her good work in the $10,000 ITF women's circuit tennis tournament in Alkmaar, the Netherlands, as she lost 2-6, 1-6 in the pre-quarterfinals to Mariona Gallifa Puigdese of Spain, who had earlier beaten Sai Jayalakshmy in the first round.

Among the three Indians, Shruti was the only one to win a round, as Rushmi Chakravarthi lost 7-5, 5-7, 2-6 to Heli Bargil of Israel in the first round.

Shruti partnering Kika Hogendoorn of the Netherlands lost in the first round of doubles to Lisa Fritz and Julia Schruff of Germany 7-5, 2-6, 5-7.

The top-seeded Sai and Rushmi lost in the first round to Natasha Galouza and Lotty Seelen of the Netherlands 6-7 (8-10) 3-6.

In the men's satellite third leg in Alkmaar, Vijay Kannan's campaign came to an end as he lost the doubles first round, with Philipe Cassiers of Belgium 4-6, 6-4, 2-6 to Johan Dijkstra and Raoul Snijders of the Netherlands.

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