Sport - Tennis

Nitin Kirtane gets top billing

By K.C. Vijaya Kumar

BANGALORE MAY 19. Nitin Kirtane stands tall despite his aching legs. A roller-coaster ride this season, has left Nitin in the top-seed's slot in the Indian Oil Servo ITF Satellite Masters tennis tournament commencing at the KSLTA Courts here on Monday.

The Pune southpaw leads a pack of eight seeds in a draw of 32. "The performance in the previous three legs was tabulated into points and Nitin with victories at Delhi and Vishakapatnam emerged on top with 43 circuit points,'' said Nitin Kannamwar, ITF supervisor, in the press briefing here on Sunday.

Nitin was back in the spotlight defeating Eliran Dooyev (Israel) in the ITF Satellite first leg final at Delhi. And then, he courted despair with a first round loss in the second leg at Mumbai. But the story was sweet at Vishakapatnam, as he won the third leg defeating Japan's Hayato Furukawa 6-4, 6-4 in the final on Saturday.

Nitin along with Mustafa Ghouse and Sandeep Kirtane comprise an Indian troika atop the seedings list. Mustafa won the Mumbai leg, while Sandeep, who came out of semi-retirement, relinquished his coach's shoes temporarily and has rather effectively wound the clock back.

The foreign challenge is headed by Israel's Eliran Dooyev (no. 4) but the Indians, having had a measure of their overseas rivals in the previous three legs, might well aim for a fair chunk of circuit points when the Masters winds to a close on May 24. The winner will be richer by $800 (Rs. 37,736) and 31 circuit points, which will be converted into ATP points.

In doubles, the Indian duo of Nitin Kirtane and Vishal Uppal with two successive title triumphs at Mumbai and Vishakapatnam, is seeded first followed by the Mustafa/Vijay Kannan combine, which won at Delhi.

The players, used to the hard courts at Delhi and Mumbai and the clay courts at Vishakapatnam, will now test their feet on the plexi-pave synthetic courts at the KSLTA.

But with India still searching for an effective second singles player in the Davis Cup, the Kirtane cousins in their late 20s do leave a few questions hanging in the balance.

The seedings: Singles: 1. Nitin Kirtane (Ind), 2. Mustafa Ghouse (Ind), 3. Sandeep Kirtane (Ind), 4. Eliran Dooyev (Isr), 5. Hayato Furukawa (Jpn), 6. Vijay Kannan (Ind), 7. Rafael Moreno Negri (Esp) and 8. Vinod Sridhar (Ind).

Doubles: 1. Nitin Kirtane/Vishal Uppal (Ind), 2. Mustafa Ghouse/Vijay Kannan (Ind), 3. Kamala Kannan/Rishi Sridhar (Ind), 4. Rohan Gajjar/Sandeep Kirtane (Ind), 5. Ivan Syrov (Rus)/Amod Wakalkar (Ind), 6. Giunior Ghedina/Sebastian Niedermayer (Ger), 7. Stephen Donovan (USA)/Negri-Moreno (Esp), 8. Naoki Arimoto/Hayato Furukawa (Jpn).

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