It's good-bye to September

By Kalyan Ashok

JORHAT, JAN. 10. It was a slaughter of the seeds at the Jorhat Tennis Club as four crashed out of the $10,000 ITF Futures tennis championship today, leaving top seed Dmitri Tomashevich of Uzbekistan and sixth seed, Vincent Allegre of France, as the only survivors.

The biggest casualty of the day was `the third-seed, Donovan September of the South Africa, who was blasted out by the Austrian National champion, Andreas Fasching 1-6, 1-6 in under 70 minutes. September, in fact, lived dangerously in the first round, but today, he had no such luck. Fasching, ranked 673, revels on clay and had total control over the proceedings with his strong forehand and consistent serve. September's major failing was his serve.

``I was just not happy with the way my strings were done here and I had lot of problem, in the first round as well. Today things got worse as I had a shoulder problem. That made me really struggle with my serve. And as far as the balls (Cosco Championship), I would not really be playing with them anywhere,'' said a downcast September. Fasching was delighted with the win. ``That was a good game and I never made any big mistakes and went for my shots.''

Soon after September three other seeds followed suit in quick succession. The fifth-seed, Oliver Freelove of Great Britain went down to Denis Gremelmayr 6-2, 2-6, 1-6, while an indisposed fourth-seed, Viktor, Bruthans, took the court, but Fabio Maggi of Italy, quickly snuffed him out in just under an hour at 6-0, 6-1. Luke Milligan, the eighth-seed from Great Britain, conceded his match with an abdominal muscle pull midway through the match against his countryman, James Nelson, who led 6-3, 3-2.

Top seed, Tomashevich, played yet another three- setter, to prevail over Anton Kokurin, also from Uzbekistan, at 6-3, 4-6, 6- 2. The 180 minute tie saw some fierce exchanges by the two Uzbeks. After splitting the first two sets, the two players, went for broke in the decider. Kokurin had a good start, braking Tomashevich in the first game, and had the upperhand in the controversial third game, where Tomashevich, stood his ground disputing a return by Kokurin, which was ruled in. He later recovered his rival. Tomashevich reeled off three quick breaks, in the fourth, sixth and eighth games, to close the set and match at 6-2.

Fred Hemmes of Netherlands notched up yet another impressive win to move into the quarterfinals. He stopped Fabrice Betencourt 6- 3, 1-6, 7-5, in a well-contested encounter featuring some engrossing rallies.

Hemmes won the first set with a single break and Betencourt was all over him in the second set with a steady stream of winners to win the set 6-1. The decider saw both players trade early breaks, before a tiring Betencourt began making quite a few unforced errors to drop serve and match at 5- 7.

In doubles, the top-seed Saurav Panja and Prahlad Srinath went down to the British pair of Oliver Freelove and James Nelson, while Syed Fazaluddin, partnering Tomashevich, moved into the semifinals.

The results:

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Andreas Fasching (Aut) bt Donovan September (RSA) 6-1, 6-1; Fred Hemmes (Ned) bt Fabrice Betencourt (Fra) 6-3, 1-6, 7-5; Vincent Allegre (Fra) bt Hendri Sushilo Pramono (Ina) 6-1, 6-1; James Nelson (GBR) bt Luke Milligan (GBR) 6-3, 3-2 (concd.); Dmitri Tomashevich (Uzb) bt Anton Kokurin (Uzb) 6-3, 4-6, 6-2; Denis Gremelmayr (Ger) bt Oliver Freelove (GBR) 2-6, 6-2, 6-1; Ivan Cerovic (Cro) bt Sergei Krotiouk (Rus) 6-1, 6-2; Fabio Maggi (Ita) bt Viktor Bruthans (Slo) 6-0, 6-1.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Wibowo/Wiryawan (Ina) bt Donovan September (RSA)/James Auckland (GBR) 6-1, 6-2; James Nelson (GBR)/Oliver Freelove (GBR) bt Saurav Panja/Prahlad Srinath (Ind) 7-6 (7-3), 6-3; De Voest (RSA)/Pramono (Ina) w/o. Viktor Bruthans/Hasko (Slo); Syed Fazalluddin (Ind)/Tomashevich (Uzb) bt Rohan Bopanna/Vijay Kannan (Ind) 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.

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