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Ashutosh gets past Ochiai
Special Correspondent
| Aqeel Khan too good for Sriram Balaji |
NEW DELHI: Ashutosh Singh did his confidence a world of good as he beat Guilherme Ochiai of Brazil 7-5, 6-4 in the first round of the ONGC $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Monday.
The victory was a welcome relief for the 25-year-old Delhi lad, who fired 11 aces in the match, as Ashutosh had won only one singles match in his last seven tournaments.
Serving well and moving for his volleys with assurance, Ashutosh put the contest on a decisive route by breaking his opponent in the 11th game of the first set.
He tightened the noose by breaking the Brazilian in the third game of the second set.
Likely to meet Vijay
In the pre-quarterfinals, Ashutosh is likely to run into the third-seeded Vijay Kannan, who is scheduled to meet Tushar Liberhan in the first round on Tuesday.
Sriram Balaji was all at sea against Aqeel Khan of Pakistan. The 17-year-old Balaji had stretched Aqeel to three sets in their last two meetings last year, but this day was unable to win a game after being 2-2 in the first set.
The results: (Indians unless specified): Singles (first round): Aqeel Khan (Pak) bt Sriram Balaji 6-2, 6-0; Lance Vodicka (U.S.) bt Cyril Hervieux (Fra) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; Ashutosh Singh bt Guilherme Ochiai (Bra) 7-5, 6-4; Wang Yu Jr. (Chn ) bt Arata Onozawa (Jpn) 6-1, 7-5.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Rohan Gajjar / Aditya Madkekar bt Yannick Nelord / Gurmehar Singh 6-3, 6-4; Aqeel Khan (Pak) / Shivang Mishra bt Chang Yu / Sun Peng (Chn) 6-0, 6-3; Katsushi Fukuda (Jpn) / Guilherme Ochiai (Bra) bt Kiran N andakumar / Vijay Sundar Prashanth 7-6(3), 7-5; Yuki Bhambri / Rohan Gide bt Rahil Makharia / Kaushik Raju 6-4, 6-3; Min-Hyoek Cho / Dong-Whee Choi (Kor) bt Jaco Mathew / Vishnu Vardhan 6-4, 6-2; Tushar Liberhan / Vivek Shokeen bt Tatsuma Ito / Arata Onozawa (Jpn) 6-3, 6-4.
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