Date:27/02/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/27/stories/2008022759852000.htm

Sport - Tennis

Gajjar dumps Volante

NEW DELHI: Qualifier Rohan Gajjar played his heart out to beat fifth seeded Matteo Volante of Italy 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3, in over two hours to make it to the pre-quarterfinals in the ITF Men’s Futures tennis tournament here on Tuesday.

Gajjar was tentative at the start but gained confidence after crucial mini-breaks in the first set tie-breaker.

Gajjar waited for his time after winning the opening set 7-6, having taken the tie-breaker 7-3. Volante rallied in the second, winning it 6-3, but lost the match as Gajjar rebounded in the decider to take it 6-3.

The results (first round): Divij Sharan bt Huai-En Chang (Tpe) 6-4, 6-4; Alexey Kedryuk (Kaz) bt Hsin-Han Lee (Tpe) 6-2, 7-6 (6); Vaja Uzakov (Uzb) bt Wang Yu Jr. (Chn) 6-3, 5-7, 7-5; Hsien-Yin Peng (Tpe) bt Kamala Kannan 7-6 (4), 7-6 (0); Rohan Gajjar bt Matteo Volante (Ita) 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3; Simeon Ivanov (Bul) bt Aqeel Khan (Pak) 5-7, 6-2, 6-4; Todor Enev (Bul) bt Purav Raja 6-4, 6-4; David Savic (Srb) bt Hyun-Woo Nam (Kor) 6-3, 6-4; Tzu-Yang Lin (Tpe) bt Vijay Kannan 6-0, 4-6, 6-4; Alexander Satschko (Ger) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan 6-2 5-7, 6-0.

Doubles: Enev and Savic bt Sharan and Navdeep Singh 6-7 (3), 7-5, 10-3; Vivek Shokeen and Ashutosh Singh bt Satschko and Volante 6-1, 6-4. — Principal Correspondent