The Hindu : Vishaal Uppal upsets Hilton

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 20, 2002

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Vishaal Uppal upsets Hilton
By Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI, MARCH 19. Wild card entrant Vishaal Uppal played a delightful serve and volley game to knock out the third-seeded Mark Hilton of Britain 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in the first round of the $ 10,000 ITF Futures tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old local lad served 16 aces in the match that lasted an hour and 40 minutes, setting up a pre-quarterfinal clash against David Sherwood of Britain who had to battle his way past Christophe Bosio of Monaco in three sets.

On a day when there was a lot to cheer about for the Indian camp, Shivang Mishra got past the fourth-seeded Anton Kokurin of Uzbekistan, Rohan Bopanna found his big serves in time to win a third set tie-break and so did Manoj Mahadevan in another tie-break in the decider, the eighth-seeded Prahlad Srinath got into his baseline groove in winning a straight set affair against lucky-loser Igor Levine of Russia.

All said, the day undoubtedly belonged to Vishaal Uppal, as the gangling young man played to potential, refusing to let his game crack when he played a loose eighth game in the decider and got broken at love.

The left-handed Briton, Mark Hilton pushed Vishaal to his wit's end, but when it came to the crunch he revealed weak nerves in getting broken in the ninth game of the decider by sending two successive doublefaults from 30-30.

Vishaal served hot, especially in setting up three matchpoints in the tenth game, and clinched the contest by converting the second matchpoint with a characteristically crisp volley.

Vishaal had captured everyone's imagination on the grasscourt here in the Davis Cup tie against Korea two seasons ago, partnering Leander Paes, and he showed nerves of steel yet again early in the match when he raced to a 5-2 lead despite dropping serve in the third game. He served out the first set in style, with two successive aces.

Though he could not sustain the momentum, as he got broken in the second and eighth games in dropping the second set, Vishaal bounced back in style in the decider, exasperating his opponent with an all-round game that was dripping with confidence.

Anther local boy, Shivang Mishra also played an intense game, fighting for every point, and had his reward for winning the first set in a nail-baiting tie-break, when his opponent Anton Kokurin of Uzbekistan threw in the towel midway through the second set.

The fourth seeded Kokurin took a toilet break, long enough for him to take a dip in the swimming pool if he had wished to do so, but could not continue with the match when Shivang broke him for the second time in the second set. Kokurin said that his shoulder was sore and retired.

Davis Cup team member Rohan Bopanna put his big game on show in the climax, against Febi Widhiyanto of Indonesia. Bopanna fired two aces in the tie-break and came up with a telling lob at 5-4 to set up two matchpoints. He took the second with another big serve in winding up the show in two hours and 10 minutes. Bopanna had 11 aces and as many doublefaults.

He will meet Yu-Jr Wang of China, a tenacious left- hander from China, who humbled Mustafa Ghouse rather tamely in three sets after the national champion had won the first set.

The Chinese dropped a mere three games in all in winning the last two sets, despite Mustafa playing very well, albeit in patches.

Manoj Mahadevan also earned his entry into the second round the hard way. He failed to serve out the match at 5-3 in the decider, but played a flawless tie-break in which he raced to a 6-0 lead before conceding a token point to qualifier Prima Simpatiaji of Indonesia.

Simpatiaji mixed an attacking style of play with a smart touch game, but could not control his disappointment after Manoj had converted his second matchpoint with a neat volley. The Indonesian threw away his new shoes, socks et al., over the boundary wall, on to the road after the match.

Simpatiaji had played hard enough to fire 13 aces as against seven by Manoj, but seemed to have lost the intensity of concentration in the end as he joked with his friends in the stands, before the start of the tie-break. He paid for it, though his friends were gracious in recovering the shoes for him.

The results: Singles (first round): Ben-Qiang Zhu (Chn) bt Sanchai Ratiwatana 6-2, 6-2; Yu-Jr Wang (Chn) bt Mustafa Ghouse 4-6, 6-1, 6-2; Rohan Bopanna bt Febi Widhiyanto (Ina) 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5); Shivang Mishra bt Anton Kokurin (Uzb) 7-6 (7-4), 3-2 (retired); Meir Deri (Isr) bt Punna Vishal 6-4, 6-3; Peng Sun (Chn) bt Alexander Sikanov (Rus) 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5); Branislav Sekac (Svk) bt Jonathan Marray (GBR) 6-3, 6-2; Manoj Mahadevan bt Prima Simpatiaji (Ina) 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 7-6 (7-1); David Sherwood (GBR) bt Christophe Bosio (Mon) 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6- 4; Vishaal Uppal bt Mark Hilton (GBR) 6-3, 2-6, 6-4; Prahlad Srinath bt Igor Levine (Rus) 6-4, 7-5; Eliran Dooyev (Isr) bt Jakub Hasek (Cze) 4-0 (retired).

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Kamala Kannan and Vinod Sridhar bt Neil Bamford and Jason Torpey (GBR) 6-4, 7-5.

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