Rajkhowa, Ghouse make their exit

By Kalyan Ashok

JORHAT, JAN. 8. The third seed, Donovan September of South Africa, over came a sluggish start to beat the hard hitting Russian Dmitri Sitak 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 and move into the second round of the ITF Futures men's tennis championship, which got underway, at the Jorhat Tennis Club here on Monday.

On a court which played little slower than a normal clay surface, the two players kept a relentless barrage from the back court and whacked the ball lot more harder with each and every rally. Donovas, ranked 453, who later admitted that he had quite a few problems adjusting to the courts here as he had not played on court for the past six months, settled down after dropping the first set and took the second.

Playing with controlled aggression, he varied his returns and used his drop volleys effectively, to power past the Russian with a decisive break in the ninth game of the decider and held his serve at love at wrap up the set and match at 6-4.

The two Indians on the view in the singles opening round - Rahul Rajkhowa and Mustafa Ghouse made quick exits. Rahul, the local boy, who has been training at the Harry Hopman Centre, was impressive in patches against the eighth seed, Luke Milligan of the Great Britain. He went down 3-6, 3-6 but not before testing his more experienced rival.

In the match, which lasted just over 90 minutes, Rajkhowa broke Milligan thrice, but was unable to sustain the momentum. In the first set, trailing 1-4, Rahul broke Milligan in the sixth game and again in the eighth game, but the advantage was squandered as he had dropped the serve in the seventh and ninth games. In the second set, Milligan lapsed into lot of errors in the fifth game and dropped the serve with a double fault. But he quickly recovered to neutralise Rahul in the sixth game to square the issue at three games all.

Milligan then hustled his young Indian rival, with some tactical net play to break him in the eighth game, after surviving a scare in the seventh where he was stretched to four deuces. Milligan closed out the set and match at 6-3 with two lucky points - the ball hitting the chord and falling across the rival's court.

The fourth seed Viktor Bruthans defeated a lacklustre Mustafa Ghouse 6-2, 6-4 in 124 minutes. Bruthans was very consistent with his service returns and had Ghouse always under pressure. The Indian struggled to move around and often netted his low volleys. In the first set, after the two had traded breaks, Bruthans surged for 4-2 lead with break in the fifth game and wrapped up the first set easily. In the second, he squandered away a 4-2 lead, allowing Ghouse to inch his way back to 4 all. But, the inconsistent Indian dropped the serve predictably in the ninth game and Bruthans closed the set and the match at 6-4.

Ms. Susan Das Chowdhry, the former National women's champion inaugurated the championship while Mr. Raktim Saikia, the tournament director and Secretary, All Assam Tennis Association welcomed the gathering at a colourful function where the participants were felicitated by the organising committee.

The results (first round):

Singles: Luke Milligan (GBR) bt Rahul Rajkhowa (India) 6-3, 6-3; James Nelson bt James Auckland (GBR) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, Fabio Maggi (lta) bt Sergi Arumi Romei (Esp) 6-4, 6-0; Donovan September (RSA) bt Dmitri Sitak (Rus) 2-6, 6-3, 6-4; Andreas Faschin bt Janci Tomas (Svk) 6-2, 6-3; Denis Greemeyer (Ger) bt Sergei Vassine (Blr) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, Oliver Freelove (GBR) by Devoest Rik (RSA) 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 Viktor Bruthans (Svk) bt Mustafa Ghouse (Ind) 6-2, 6-4.

Doubles: Wiryawan & Winbowo (Ina) bt Zewar Edy (Egy) & Koukrin (Uzb) 7-5, 6-3; Syed Fazaluddin (Ind) & Tomashevich (Uzb) bt Kroutik & Nourmatov (Rus) 5-7, 6-0, 6-2.

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