Uppal remains in contention

By Kalyan Ashok

BANGALORE, JAN. 23. Vishal Uppal was the lone Indian survivor at the end of the first round ties in the third $10,000ITF Futures tennis championship at the Kingfisher-McDowell KSLTA Stadium here on Tuesday.

Uppal defeated Manoj Mahadevan 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to make the last 16, the remaining four Indians-Prahlad Srinath, Rohan Bopanna, C.D. Ajay and Vijay Kannan- having made their exit.

The biggest setback was the bitter defeat of the local hero, Prahlad Srinath, who shot off the course while cruising, to what looked like, a convincing victory over the Croatian, Ivan Cerovic. The Indian went down 6-4, 6-7 (7-9), 2-6 in an engrossing 132 minute contest.

The defeat was galling one for Srinath, who almost had the match in his pocket with three break points in the fifth game of the second set, but the tide turned in a swift manner. Srinath went for his shots and dominated for a major part of the encounter. But once the big-serving Cerovic got going with his booming serve and strong forehand and kept hitting consistent returns, Srinath, came under pressure.

The Indian took the first set when Cerovic dropped the serve in the ninth game with three double faults and the Indian down at 15-30 in the tenth game, pulled back to hold the serve with Cerovic netting a backhand. Srinath was right on top after taking the first set and had Cerovic pinned to the wall with the Croat trailing love 40 on his serve in the fifth game. But Cerovic got off the hook with two big serves, forcing a weak return from his rival and then a couple of mishits, saw srinath failing to force the crucial break.

The set then simply went with serves till the tie- breaker. The tie-breaker too was a tight one with Cerovic taking a 4-1 lead, but Srinath rallied to square it 4-all with Cerovic netting a volley and then Srinath blasting service winner and a smash. Srinath later took a 6-5 lead with another good return and Cerovic tied it at six-all with an ace. Srinath edged closer to match point with Cerovic hammering a forehand out, but the Indian then made his second double fault in the tie-breaker which again tied the score at 7 all. Srinath netted his next one and swiped one long to drop the set 6-7 (7-9).

Cerovic, after managing to take that set almost against the odds, was a fully transformed player in the decider, blasting winners on both flanks as a dispirited Srinath crumbled quickly dropping the serve in the first and seventh games and going down 2-6.

``It was a good match and though I came up with few double faults early, I was sure about my serve and I did well to hold it in the second and the decider. He almost had me in the fifth game of the second set, I am glad I came out of it and once I did that, I was confident about the outcome,'' said Cerovic. In a clash of two Indians which was marked by some good rallies, Vishal Uppal struggled in the first set against Manoj Mahadevan trying to adjust to the new racket and the bounce and Mahadevan, playing strongly, broke him in the fifth game to take the first set. But Uppal settled down to play lot more sensibly and dictated the pace to prevail over Manoj Mahadevan, who was warned for verbal abuse in the second set.

Uppal meets fourth seed Rik de Voest of South Africa in the next round. Rik beat Oliver Freelove of Britain 7-6 (9-7), 6-4.

The champ at Kolkata, the fifth seeded Jaroslav Levinsky, crashed out in a hard fought three setter (6-4, 4-6, 4- 6) to Dmitri Sitak of Russia. Levinsky, after the tie went into decider, began making too many unforced errors to lose his grip.

The results: singles (first round): Ivan Cerovic (Cro) bt Prahlad Srinath (Ind) 4-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-2; Suwandi Suwandi (Ina) bt Sergei Krotiouk (Rus) 6-4, 6-1; James Auckland (GBr) bt Andrej Youzhny (Rus) 6-4, 6-2; Donovan September (RSA) bt Ajay Chowdapalli (Ind) 6-0, 1-6, 6-2; Hendri Susilo Pramono (Ina) bt Vijay Kannan (Ind) 6-4, 6-2; Vishal Uppal (Ind) bt Manoj Mahadevan (Ind) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3; Rik de Voest (RSA) bt Oliver Freelove (GBr) 7-6 (9-7), 6-4; Dmitri Sitak (Rus) bt Jaroslav Levinsky (Cze) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4; Anton Kokurin (Uzb) bt Rohan Bopanna (Ind) 7-5, 3-6, 6-2.

Doubles (first round): Rohan Bopanna/Vijay Kannan (Ind) bt Youzhny (Rus)/Zewar (Egy) 6-3, 6-2; Lewinsky/Navratil (Cze) bt Tomas/Varsanyi (Svk) 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-5); Ghouse/Uppal (Ind) bt Kokurin/Mazur (Uzb) 6-3, 7-6 (7-5); Manoj Mahadevan/R. Sridhar (Ind) bt Kanbargimath/V. Laad (Ind) 5- 7, 6-3, 6-4; September/Devoest (RSA) bt J. Hui (HK)/Draper (Aust) 6-7 (9-11), 7-6 (7-3), 6-2; Freelove/Nelson (GBR) bt Bruthans (Svk)/Cerovic(Cro) 6-4, 7-6 (7-2).

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