Vijay Kannan bows out in first round

PUNE, MARCH 19. Fifth- seeded Michail Elgin of Russia, eighth- seeded Vijay Kannan and wild card entrant Saurav Panja of India bowed out on the opening day of the third leg of the Desai Brothers-ITF satellite tennis championships, which got underway at the Deccan Gymkhana tennis courts. Meanwhile, wild card entrant Nitin Kirtane and qualifier Manoj Mahadevan of India marched into the second round.

Greek Rovas Nikos upset Michail Elgin 7-6 (7-4), 6- 2.

In the best match of the day Nitin Kirtane fought a one-hour-16- minute battle with Beks. In the first set Kirtane was broken in the eighth game, nut he hit some superb down-the-line winners to break back in the ninth game and level scores. Kirtane broke Beks again in the 11th game and served out the first set.

In the second set, Kirtane managed to hold serve in the 10th game in spite of three double faults. , He then broke Beks in the next game to take a 6-5 lead, and served out the match.

Qualifier Manoj Mahadevan who had 2.5 circuit points added more to his kitty by entering the second round at the expense of another qualifier Evgeny Smirnov of Russia winning 6- 1, 6-4 in an hour. In the biggest upset of the day unseeded Nikos Rovas toppled the apple cart of Michail Elgin of Russia 7-6 (7-4), 6-2. In a one-hour-22-minute battle.

In another upset of the day star performer of the last week and semifinalist in the Nagpur leg, eighth-seeded Vijay Kannan went down tamely to qualifier Alexey Gavrilov 2-6, 4-6 in a one-hour- 13-minute match.

lThe results: Nitin Kirtane (Ind) bt Bert Beks (Ned) 7-5, 7-5; Economidis Konstantinos (Gre) bt Saurav Panja (Ind) 6-2, 6-4; Alexey Gavrilov (Rus) bt Vijay Kannan (Ind) 6-2, 6-4; Tomas Cakl (Czech) bt Alexander Jakupovic (Gre) 7-5, 4-6, 6-2; Nikos Rovas (Gre) bt Michail Elgin (Rus) 7-6 (7-1), 6-2; Manoj Mahadevan (Ind) bt Evgeny Smirnov (Rus) 6-1, 6-4; Anton Kokurin (Uzb) bt Sergei Krotiouk (Rus) 7-6 (7-3), 6-2; Or Dekel (Isr) bt Meir Deri (Isr) 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 7-5.

- UNI

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