Harsh Mankad moves up

By G. Viswanath

MUMBAI, JUNE 5. Harsh Mankad, who had mulled over the prospect of beating the stifling conditions on Sunday evening, but did not appear to be overtly anxious about his first round rival Vijay Kannan, went on an overdrive once he got his bearings in the ITF $25,000 Indian Satellite (first leg) men's circuit at the G.A. Ranade Tennis Centre, Cooperage on Monday. His moment of victory came 10 minutes short of one and-a-half hours, cutting Kannan to size in the second set in a little over half-an-hour.

The No. 4 seed, Mankad, won 6-4, 6-2 after Sandeep Kirtane's experience and precision made short work of Chandrasekhar Mohanty. Kirtane who is seeded No. 6, won nine games in a row to complete the rout of his opponent at 6-1, 6-0 in three quarters of an hour.

There were four Indians who figured in the two singles matches scheduled for the day; the tournament referee Hany El- Khalief acceding to the request of majority of the players to roster their matches for Tuesday. This made certain of an outright success for Indians on the first day of the Satellite. There will be more good tidings on Tuesday for the home players with the Indians taking almost two-thirds of the 32-card draw. Mankad and Kirtane will be joined by five more Indians in the second round.

Kirtane, an old hand in the Indian tennis circuit, brushed aside the challenge of Mohanty, serving well and belting ground strokes and winning them, too. Mohanty, who is part of the select AITA bunch with a specialist coach in S. Narendranath, just about managed to win 17 points and a game. Mohanty dropped his first service game, won the second conceding a point, but there after it was a one-man show. Mohanty was in a real plight, scraping six points in the second set.

Kirtane will meet the winner of the match between France's Gwenael Guiet and India's Vishal Akshay-Rao in the second round on Wednesday.

There was better fare in the centre court of the Tennis Centre, with Vijay Kannan getting his serves right and staying back to return with a high degree of consistency.

Mankad, too, dropped only three points in his first three service games. ``It was tight until then,'' said Mankad after the match. He looked to be in some trouble in the eighth game which he coped to hold and make the game score 4-4.

The turnaround of the first set and perhaps the match came about in the ninth, which was a mixed bag for both the players. Vijay Kannan's serves ditched him, the downside of it being three double faults that gave three break points to Mankad. Kannan rescued himself whipping a couple of back hands that suggested his character and guts in adversity. Mankad muffed a couple of sitters, but eventually won the fifth break point smashing a weak return from Kannan, that brought an end to a game that lasted for close to 10 minutes.

Kannan simply caved in after being outwitted in the ninth game. Mankad fired an ace to take the first set that lasted for nearly one hour. ``I think the momentum shifted after this game. I wanted to stay firm and fight hard. He was serving and volleying well till I broke him. I just wanted to play well after I won the first set,'' said Mankad, who has built some reputation of breaking into the top hundred in college tennis in the U.S.

He was unstoppable after he broke Kannan in the third, though he dropped the fourth being a trifle reckless and over confident. Kannan's misery was unmistakable in his faltering serves while Mankad sharpened his serves and strokes which he got inch by inch correctly. Kannan's game and confidence appeared to have collapsed, proof of which was evident in the sitter of smash he missed at 3-5. He slammed it on the net. Mankad wrapped up the second set and match winning four games in a row.

Mankad will meet the winner of the first round match between qualifier Phoemphon Atabut (Thailand) and Alexandre Sikanov (Russia). ``I think I have lost only to Prahlad Srinath in the three Satellites I have played. This is my fourth Satellite event.''

The results: men's singles (first round): Harsh Mankad (Ind. No 4 seed) bt Vijay Kannan (Ind) 6-4, 6-2; Sandeep Kirtane (Ind. No. 6 seed) bt Chandrasekhar Mohanty (Ind. WC) 6-1, 6-0.

Doubles (qualifying round): Akshay Jagdale (Ind)/Vinod Sridhar (Ind) bt Karan Doctor (Ind)/Vishal Akshay-Rao (Ind) 6-0, 6-2; Narendranath (Ind)/Abhishek Tamhane (Ind) bt Anand Mukjerjee (Ind)/Abhishek Jagnani (Ind) 6-3, 7-6.

First round: Patril Stalbark (Swe)/Per Thornadtsson (Swe) bt Sangram Chapekar (Ind)/Virendra Laad (Ind) 6-3, 6-1; Harsh Mankad (Ind)/Ajay Ramaswamy (Ind) bt Rohan Bopanna (Ind)/Rishi Sridhar (Ind) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; Mohammad Ghouse (Ind)/Vishal Uppal (Ind) bt Manoj Mahadevan (Ind)/Amod Wakalkar (Ind) 6-3, 6-7, 6-3; Mithun Murali (Ind)/Mukundan Nandakumar (Ind) bt Avinash Arun (Ind)/Shivshankar Kanbargimath (Ind) 1-6, 6-1, 7-6; Alexey Gavrilov (Rus)/Alexandre Sikanov (Rus) bt Barry Fulcher (GBR)/Vijay Kannan (Ind) 6-4, 6-4; Sandeep Kirtane (Ind)/Saurav Panja (Ind) bt Parantap Chaturvedi (Ind)/Chandrasekhar Mohanty (Ind) 6-2, 6-3.

Tuesday's fixtures: men's singles: Danal Udomchoke (Thailand, No. 1 seed) v Patril Stalbark (lucky loser, Sweden), Abhishek Jagnani (Ind. Q) v Amod Wakalkar (Ind. Q), Kamlesh Shukla (Ind) v Kedar Shah (Ind), Ravishankar Pathanjali (Ind. Q) v Kunj Majmudar (USA. No. 8 seed), Phoemphon Atabut (Thailand. Q) v Alexandre Sikanov (Russia), Kamala Kannan (Ind. WC) v Saurav Panja (Ind. WC), Mustafa Ghouse (Ind) v Barry Fulcher (GBR. No. 5 seed), Gwenael Gueit (France) v Vishal Akshay-Rao (Ind), Marian Leysek (Slovakia) v Alexey Gavrilov (Russia. Q), Robert Nita (Romania) v Vishal Uppal (Ind. No. 3 seed), Vinod Sridhar (Ind. No. 7 seed) v Gautam Tushar (Ind. WC), John Rom (USA. Q) v Virendra Laad (Ind), Manoj Mahadevan (Ind) v Vikrant Chadha (Ind. Q), Rohan Bopanna (Ind) v Per Thornadtsson (Sweden. No. 2 seed).

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