TN players move into third round

NOVEMBER 22: Two unseeded players from Maharashtra, Abhishek Tamhane and Abhijit Muzumdar were the toast of the Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fun...

NOVEMBER 22: Two unseeded players from Maharashtra, Abhishek Tamhane and Abhijit Muzumdar were the toast of the Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund-sponsored JS Pereira Memorial tennis Tournament despite being on the losing side. They went down fighting to Tamil Nadu opponents, one of whom made it from the qualifying stage as a lucky loser at the Bandra Gymkhana on Monday.

Abhishek Tamhane battled for two hours against Vimal Kirthi before losing 6-3 3-6 4-6.

Muzumdar faced the No 5 seed, Avinash Arun. Arun won 6-3 4-6 6-3 in a match that lasted more then the Tamhane-Kirthi clash.

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After winning the first set, Arun, a former Brittania Amritraj product, surprisingly committed unforced errors in the second set to allow Muzumdar to get back into the match. In a battle of the baseliners, Muzumdar broke Arun in the fourth game for a 3-1 lead and looked set to surge comfortably ahead. But Arun managed to break the back in the next game to set up an exciting tie.

Games then went with serve as both players were engaged in long rallies, until Muzumdar broke his rival in the crucial tenth game to force the match into the decider. The third set promised to be close, but Arun broke Muzumdar thrice to clinch the set and the match with a sigh of relief.

Top seed Vinod Sridhar of Tamil Nadu led the other ranked players into the second-round without much ado. Only third seed Vishal Punna of Andhra Pradesh endured hiccups in the opening set against Karnataka’s Pravin Kumar before winning 7-5, 6-3.

Former India Davis Cupper, Asif Ismail, seeded No. 7 here, had little difficulty before advancing to the second-round with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Tamil Nadu’s S Ganesh.

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Wild card Nilesh Saldanha of Bandra Gymkhana gave Uttar Pradesh’s Kamlesh Shukla a scare before going down 7-5, 4-6, 0-6. Rahul Gandhi of Tamil Nadu, another wild card, also took compatriot R Narendran the distance before bowing in similar fashion at 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 4-6. In another interesting three-setter, Benjamin Xavier of Maharashtra resisted a stiff challenge from Karnataka’s CD Ajay to win 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.

RESULTS

Men’s singles (1st round): Asif Ismail (Mah) bt S Ganesh (TN) 6-4 6-3; Anjan Viplav (AP) bt Jaidev Punjabi (Kar) 6-2 6-3; R Narendran (TN) bt Rahul Gandhi (TN) 6-7 (8) 6-3 6-4; Mohd Yaseer Arafat (AP) bt Girish Mishra (UP) 6-1 6-0; Benjamin Xavier (Mah) bt CD Ajay (Kar) 7-5 4-6 6-4; Vishaal Punna (AP) bt Pravin Kumar (Kar) 7-5 6-3; Kamlesh Shukla (UP) bt Nilesh Saldanha (Mah) 5-7 6-4 6-0; Vinod Sridhar (TN) bt Ishraque Gulrays (Mah) 6-0 6-0; Kunal Bhojwani (Mah) bt Siddharth Sharma (Kar) 6-2 6-0; Intikhab Ali (Mah) bt Sangram Chapekar (Mah) 6-0 6-2; Avinash Arun (TN) bt Abhijit Muzumdar (Mah) 6-3 4-6 6-3; Vimal Kirthi (TN) bt Abhishek Tamhane (Mah) 3-6, 6-3 6-4; Kedar Shah (Mah) bt Vivek Satyajit (Del) 6-1 6-3; Mayur Vasant (Mah) bt be Brendan D’Souza (Mah) 6-2 6-0; Zaman Zansarus (WB) bt Imran Yusuf (mah) 6-4 6-3.