The Hindu : Mankad will lead Indian challenge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 25, 2003

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Mankad will lead Indian challenge

By Amitabha Das Sharma

KOLKATA MARCH 24. In the absence of a few of his renowned compatriots India's Davis Cupper Harsh Mankad will lead the Indian charge in the Exide ITF men's Futures tennis, which sees the main draw getting underway on Tuesday at the newly built BTA Complex hardcourts.

With the Futures carnival moving to the city following a week of intense action in Mumbai, the mood here is upbeat about another week of competitive tennis. Almost all the foreign participants, including the Mumbai leg champion Zbynek Mlynarik of Austria, from the earlier leg have made it here, but there are a few absentees among the Indians. Last leg's finalist Rohan Bopanna, and two other prominent names on the national circuit, Mustafa Ghouse and Sunil Kumar Sepiya, will be missing the action.

Four Indians, Mankad, Vijay Kannan, Ajay Ramaswami and Manoj Mahadevan, earned direct entries by virtue of their ITF rankings, while four others — Vishal Uppal, Kamala Kannan, Jaco T. Mathew and Vinod Sewa — received wildcards.

Mankad, having a favourable record on hardcourt, would definitely prefer to leave his disappointment of the pre-quarterfinal exit in Mumbai behind and justify the fifth seeding (the only Indian with the privilege) he has earned here.

Fred Hemmes, having an ITF ranking of 310, has been top seeded, while Czech Lukas Dlouhy is seeded second ahead of Pakistan's Aisam Qureshi, who is making an international appearance after a prolonged lay-off.

With only eight Indians in the draw of 32, the foreign participation (with representation from 13 countries) thus remains sizeable.

The qualifiers turned out to be a disaster for the Indians as none of the 13 entries could qualify for the main draw. Vishal Punna, Kedar Tembe and Aditya Madkekar progressed to the qualifying finals but all three lost to foreign opponents in the decisive round on Monday leaving the number of Indians in the main draw unchanged.

Though most of the seeded players advanced, the qualifiers saw an upset in the exit of the Mumbai leg semifinalist Jonathan Marray of Great Britain. Second-seeded Marray was sent packing in straight sets by 11th-seeded Marcel Felder of Uruguay.

The results (qualifying final round): 1-Vadim Davletshin (Rus) bt Phodos Kallias (Cyp) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3; 11-Marcel Felder (Uru) bt 2-Jonathan Marray (GBR) 7-6 (7-5), 6-2; 3-Sonchat Ratiwatana (Tha) bt Kedar Tembe (Ind) 6-0, 6-4; 4-Guiseppe Manga (Ita) bt 10-Yew Ming Si (Mas) 6-4, 0-6, 6-4; 5-Naoki Arimoto (Jpn) bt Aditya Madkekar (Ind) 6-1, 7-6 (7-0); Jerome Almagrida (Fra) bt Koji Motomura (Jpn) 6-1, 6-0; 9-Matwe Middelkoop (Ned) bt 7-Vishal Punna (Ind) 6-2, 6-2; 15-Takeshi Itoh (Jpn) bt 8-Boy Wijnmalen (Ned) 6-0, 6-2.

Main draw doubles (first round): Daniel Lesske (Ger)/Smit Jasper (Ned) bt Ritesh Chitlangya/Abhishek Jagnani (Ind) 3-6, 6-3, 6-3; Harsh Mankad/Vishal Uppal (Ind) bt Kamala Kannan/Vinod Sridhar (Ind) 6-3, 6-1; 4-Vijay Kannan/Ajay Ramaswami (Ind) bt Kondo Hiroki/Matsui Toshihide (Jpn) 7-5, 6-3; Manoj Mahadevan/Kedar Tembe (Ind) bt Vinod Sewa/Anjan Viplav (Ind) 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.

The seedings: 1. Fred Hemmes (Ned), 2. Lukas Dlouhy (Cze), 3. Aisam Qureshi (Pak), 4. Jakub Hasek (Cze), 5. Harsh Mankad (Ind), 6. Gustavo Marcio (Arg), 7. David Sherwood, 8. Daniel Lesske (Ger).

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