Sport - Tennis   

A good fare in store

By Our Special Correspondent

DAVANGERE Nov.10. Getting big time tennis to districts has been the motto of the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association and keeping with that aim Davangere will be the new venue of the third ITF men's tennis championship which gets underway with the main draw ties in doubles at the new courts at the Tennis Club here.

There has been a delay in finishing the courts and that has led to backlog of unfinished matches in the singles qualifying rounds, which are expected to be over only on Monday. The main draw of the singles, subsequently, will get underway only on Tuesday.

Rohan Bopanna, whose presence would have gladdened the hearts of the local fans, has opted to skip the event, as he was nursing an injury on the serving arm.

Another notable absentee will be the first leg winner, Ivanov of Russia. But the rest of the ITF caravan are very much in town, including the National champion, Vinod Sridhar, who won the second leg title at Delhi on Saturday.

A good fare indeed awaits the local fans, which are already turning up in huge numbers to watch the qualifying round ties. Four new courts, with Decoturf surface are in place for the championship and the local administration, youth services department, and District Commissioner, K. Shivaram have played a major role in installing a major tennis infrastructure in this town, known for its educational institutions and in bygone days, it was known as the Manchester of Karnataka.

Many would argue with KSLTA push for tennis in districts, given the remoteness of some the areas, but KSLTA Secretary, Mr. C. S. Sunder Raju, points out that his experiment is already paying dividends.

``We had an ITF event in Gulbarga, which has now acquired an international class stadium and already that facility is being put to good use with as many as 117 children undergoing training at various levels.''

The results (qualifying second round): Amod Wakalkar bt Albert Ballesta 6-4,7-5; Eric Schere (US) bt K. Subramnaiam 6-0,6-0; Yew Ming Si (Mas ) bt Yassir Bouyaha (Mor) 6-1,3-6,6-2;Arjun Gautham bt Joseph Huber (Aut ) 6-3,6-4; Shnatanu Dutta bt Ravi Palivela 7-6 (7-2),6-2; Ajay Chowdapally bt Rafiq 6-1,6-2; Ashutosh Singh bt Vijendra Laad 6-4,6-1; Anjan Viplav bt Kiran Kumar 6-3,6-4; Nipun Gupta bt Shreyan 6-4,6-4; Sriranga sudhakar bt Madan 6-1,6-0; M. Aditya bt Randon Thierry (Bra) 7-6 (9-7),6-3; Tehran Ala (Ira) bt Punna Vikas 6-7 (5-7),6-1,6-3.

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