Date:22/11/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/11/22/stories/2004112202671900.htm

Sport - Tennis

A chance for Indians to impress

By Kamesh Srinivasan

GURGAON, NOV. 21. The race for winning the Satellite may be over with the German, Simon Greul, leading the pack with 42 circuit points. But Indians can still make a mark as the Satellite tennis circuit moves into the third week at the NTA Complex here.

Rarely has an Indian Satellite had a player of quality as Greul. The 23-year-old got a ranking of 148 last year, when he beat American Justin Gimelstob to win a Challenger in Dallas.

He also defeated Martin Verkerk of Holland, last year's French Open finalist, in the final of a Challenger in 2001. For the record, Greul has won the first two legs here.

The manner in which Vishaal Uppal teased Greul with his serve and volley in the quarterfinals of the second week, and the fluency with which Sunil Kumar had tackled the German in the semifinals of the first week, there is still scope for the Indian players to make their presence felt in this circuit.

The seedings (Indians unless specified): 1. Simon Greul (Ger), 2. Alexey Kedriouk (Kaz), 3. Norikazu Sugiyama (Jpn), 4. Stefano Ianni (Ita), 5. Sunil Kumar, 6. Vishaal Uppal, 7. Tobias Koeck (Aut) and 8. Adam Fass (US).

The results: Qualifying event (second round): Sarvar Ikramov (Uzb) bt P. C. Vignesh 6-0, 6-3; Alin Alexandra Simion (Rom) bt Pratim Parekh 7-5, 6-3; Sherif Sabry (Egy) bt Rohan Gide 6-2, 6-4; Boris Kurtovic (Cro) bt V. M. Ranjeet 6-3, 6-4; Mohammed Shaaban (Egy) bt Mohammed Yasser Arafat 6-2, 6-4; Gurmehar Singh bt Aditya Madkekar 7-6(5), 6-1; Kamala Kannan bt J. Vishnu Vardhan 6-3, 6-3; Pawan Polavarapu bt Honey Rana 4-6, 6-3, 6-4; Mustafa Ghouse bt Sabin Tigu (Ned) 6-3, 6-3; Vlastislav Slama (Cze) bt Sumit Prakash Gupta 6-4, 7-5; Peter Mayer-Tischer (Ger) bt Siddharth Gulati 6-1, 6-1; Patrick John Tierro (Phi) bt Stefan Seylwad (Aut) 6-1, 6-0; Karan Rastogi bt Scott Paltrowitz (US) 6-1, 6-0; Ashutosh Singh bt Patrick Sohan (Sri) 6-1, 6-0; Hiu-Tung Yu (Hkg) bt Shreyansh Sacheti 6-3, 6-1; Dmitri Makeyev (Kaz) bt Rafiqu Paruti 6-1, 7-5.