Paes-Kirtane excel

AHMEDABAD, DEC 1: Unseeded pair of Leander Paes and his new doubles partner Nitin Kirtane of India shocked fourth seed Eyal Ran and Eyal Er...

AHMEDABAD, DEC 1: Unseeded pair of Leander Paes and his new doubles partner Nitin Kirtane of India shocked fourth seed Eyal Ran and Eyal Erlich of Israel 7-6 (14-12), 7-5 in the first round of the men’s doubles in the ATP Challenger tennis series here, today.

India’s number one Davis Cup player Paes, who finished runner-up along with his teammate Mahesh Bhupathi at the ATP Doubles championship recently, teamed-up with Kirtane to try out a new combination and came out with flying colours.

The match, that lasted for one hour 34 minutes, witnessed some long rallies by both the pairs but the Indians won most of the important points which ultimately tilted the match in their favour.

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The left handed Nitin Kirtane proved that he can combine well with Paes if needed when India play in their forthcoming Davis Cup tie against Italy in April next.

The other Indian pair Mahesh Bhupathi and Sandeep Kirtane went down fighting in their first round match against top seeded Portuguese pair of Emanueal Couto and Joao Cunha-Silva. The Portuguese pair rallied from a set down, to pip the plucky Indian pair 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.

Eighth seeded Eyal Ran of Israel had a good day in singles beating Dmitriy Tomashevich of Uzbekistan 7-5, 6-1. Qualifier Herbert Wiltschnig of Austria powered his way into the second round with a 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 victory over unseeded Bernardo Mota of Portugal.

Results (men’s singles) first round: Vladimir Voltchkov (Bls) bt Sandeep Kirtane (Ind) 7-5, 6-2, Eyal Ran (Isr) bt Dmitriy Tomashevich (Uzb) 7-5, 6-1, Orlin Stanoytchev (Ndh) bt Luke Milligan (UK) 6-4, 6-1, Oleg Ogorodov (Uzb) bt Satoshi Iwabuchi (Jpn) 6-3, 6-3, Goichi Motomura (Jpn) bt Takao Suzuki (Jpn) 1-3 (Suzuki conceded the match due to injury), Martijn Belgraver (Ndh) bt Barry Cowan (UK) 6-3, 6-1, Herbert Wiltschnig (Aut) bt Berwardo Mota (Por) 6-0, 4-6, 6-1.

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Men’s doubles (first round): S Randjelovic (Aut)/ Vladimi Voltchkov (Bls) bt Mustafa Ghouse (Ind)/ Harsh Mankad (Ind) 6-4, 6-1, D Nainkin (SA)/ M Hilpert (Aut) bt V Kutsenko (Uzb)/ D Tomashevich (Uzb) 3-6, 6-3, 7-5; L Paes/ N Kirtane (Ind) bt E Erlich/ E Ran (Isr) 7-6 (14-12), 7-5, E Couto/ Joao Cunha-Silva (Isr) bt M Bhupathi/ S Kirtane (Ind) 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.