Bopanna ousted in round one

Second seed Igor Kunitsyn was never going to be an easy first round opponent for Rohan Bopanna...

Second seed Igor Kunitsyn was never going to be an easy first round opponent for Rohan Bopanna, but considering the way the Indian began the match, it looked as though an upset was on the cards at the DLTA Complex today. In the end, though, it turned out to be a frustrating case of so near, yet so far as the Russian saved two match points en route to a 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory in the ONGC $50,000 ATP Challenger event being played here.

Bopanna served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, and was twice a point away from the second round, but forehand errors led him to gift away the opportunity, and it was all downhill from there. The 26-year-old from Vladivostok won the next two games to take the match into a third set, and continued his comeback as an off-colour Bopanna failed to recover.

However, Kunitsyn’s tale had another twist — for all his effort, he will take no further part in the tournament. He withdrew later today following news of a demise in his family, giving Korean Jae-sung An a place in the quarter finals.

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The other Indians fared no better, as seventh seed Wesley Moodie of South Africa defeated Karan Rastogi 6-3, 6-3, and American Alberto Francis took out Harsh Mankad 7-5, 6-2.

Pakistan’s Aisam Qureshi, seeded sixth here, needed three sets to overcome Ukraine’s Ivan Sergeyev 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

Tuesday’s results

Singles:

Wesley Moodie (RSA) bt Karan Rastogi 6-3, 6-3; Alberto Francis (USA) bt Harsh Mankad 7-5, 6-2; Rik de Voest (RSA) bt Kamik Capkovic (SVK) 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (9); Adrian Cruciat (ROU) bt Tomas Cakl (CZE) 6-4, 7-5; Igir Kunitsyn (RUS) bt Rohan Bopanna 3-6, 7-5, 6-3; Aisam Qureshi (PAK) bt Ivan Sergeyev (UKR) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; Xin Yuan Yu (CHN) bt Franko Skugor (CRO) 6-4, 6-7 (1), 7-6 (5); Martin slanar (AUT) bt Joshua Goodall (GBR) 6-3, 7-6 (8).

Doubles:

Rik de Voest/Wesley Moodie (RSA) bt Divij Sharan/Navdeep Singh 6-4, 7-6 (3); Tomas Cakl/Ivo Minar (CZE) bt Purav Raja/Sunil Kumar Sipaeya 4-6, 6-4, 10-5; Pavel Chekhov/Michael Elgin (RUS) bt Joshua Goodall (GBR)/Frank Moser (GER) 6-3, 7-5; Benjamin Balleret (MON)/Sebastien de Chanuac (FRA) bt Kamil Capkovic (SVK)/Dekel Valtzer (ISR) 6-3, 6-4; Patrick Briaud (USA)/Mustafa ghouse bT Alberto Francis (USA)/Dieter Kindlmann (GER) 6-1, 6-4; Adrian Cruciat (ROU)/Adrian Menendez (ESP) bt Vijay Kannan/Vivek Shokeen 6-2, 6-3; Rohan Bopanna/Aisam Qureshi (PAK) bt Stephen Amritraj/Cecil Mamiit (PHI) 6-2, 6-4