Date:03/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/03/stories/2008070353562000.htm

Sport - Tennis

Three Indians qualify

Chennai: Three Indians — Harinderpal Singh Sandhu, Parth Sharma and Ravi Dixit — have qualified for the ICL Chennai Open main draw, after winning their qualifying round matches here on Wednesday. New Zealand’s Graeme Wilson is the other qualifier.

Dixit defeated Denmark’s Kristian Frost Olesen, ranked 198 in the world, in four games, in his final qualifying match. He will take on second seed Ritwik Bhattacharya in the first round of the main draw. Sandhu, Sharma and Wilson will take on Shamsul Islam Khan, Dick Lau and Rob Sutherland in their first round matches.

Australia’s Zac Alexander has replaced Siddharth Suchde in the main draw following the latter’s withdrawal through injury.

The results: Final Qualifying: Harinderpal Singh Sandhu bt A. Parthiban 11-2, 11-6, 8-11, 11-8; Parth Sharma bt B. Balamurugan 11-6, 9-11, 11-5, 11-5; Ravi Dixit bt Kristian Frost Olesen (Den) 12-10, 5-11, 11-4, 13-11; Graeme Wilson (NZL) bt Aditya Jagtap 11-9, 11-6, 11-4.

Qualifying round 1: Parthiban bt Paramit Singh 12-14, 9-11, 11-7, 15-13, 11-5; B. Balamurugan bt Ramit Tandon 8-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-9; Ravi Dixit bt Karan Malik 11-4, 11-4, 7-11, 11-3; Aditya Jagtap bt Abhishek Pradhan 11-4, 11-9, 11-6.