Date:20/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/20/stories/2008052053491800.htm

Sport - Tennis

Vishnu beats Bhambri

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Qualifier Vishnu Vardhan was in top form as he outplayed wild card entrant Yuki Bhambri 6-1, 6-0 in the first round of the Challenger tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Monday.

On a day when Ashutosh Singh raced past Travis Rettenmaier of the U.S. with a 6-4, 7-5 win and Prakash Amritraj lost 6-4, 7-5 to Adam Feeney of Australia, the focus was firmly on the national grasscourt champion, Vishnu Vardhan.

Retaining his focus despite the long rain interruption, Vishnu ran up a 5-0 lead, saving breakpoints in the third game. Bhambri held serve in the sixth game, but that was all he could do.

In the pre-quarterfinals, Vishnu will meet the fifth-seeded Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan who warded off a stiff resistance from Sunil Kumar in three sets.

In a battle that lasted nearly three hours, Sunil saved a matchpoint on his serve in the tenth game of the decider but Qureshi converted his third matchpoint in the 12th game.

Ashutosh broke the Rettenmaier in the tenth game of the first set to pocket it, and recovered from losing momentum by dropping serve in the first game of the second to record a 6-4, 7-5 win.

Elusive win

Amritraj fought better than last week but a win still proved elusive.

He dropped serve in the fifth and seventh games of the first set, and could not fight on despite getting a break back.

Into the second set, Amritraj dropped serve once again in the fifth game following two volleying errors and two judgmental errors. He broke back in the tenth game but won only two games after that.

The results: Singles (first round): Vishnu Vardhan bt Yuki Bhambri 6-1, 6-0; Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi bt Sunil Kumar 6-3, 4-6, 7-5; Guillermo Alcaide (Esp) bt Andrew Coelho (Aus) 5-7, 6-4, 6-4p; Thomas Oger (Fra) bt Takao Suzuki (Jpn) 6-3, 3-0 (retired); Ricardo Mello (Bra) bt Ilia Marchenko (Ukr) 6-2, 6-4; Colin Ebelthite (Aus) bt Mustafa Ghouse 6-3, 6-4; Ashutosh Singh bt Travis Rettenmaier (US) 6-4, 7-5; Adam Feeney (Aus) bt Prakash Amritraj 6-4, 7-5.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Toshihide Matsui & Go Soeda (Jpn) bt Tushar Liberhan & Vishnu Vardhan 6-4, 6-2; Harsh Mankad & Ashutosh Singh bt Rohan Gide & Yannick Nelord 6-0, 6-2.