The Hindu : Sport : Vivek Shokeen prevails over Vishnu Vardhan

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Wednesday, Aug 08, 2007
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Sport

Vivek Shokeen prevails over Vishnu Vardhan

Special Correspondent

TENNIS / Oppressive humidity forces five players to retire

LUDHIANA: Vivek Shokeen got the better of Vishnu Vardhan 7-6(6), 6-3 in the first round of the Harvest Academy $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament at Jassowal on Tuesday.

It was a quality fare from the 20-year-old Davis Cupper, as Vivek won his first singles match in the last four tournaments. In fact, he had not won a set in his last three tournaments and had actually never beaten Vishnu, in any of their previous four meetings.

There has never been any doubt about Vivek’s game, but he had to apply himself on court to do justice to his immense potential. He started hesitantly as he could not get closer to the big serves that Vishnu delivered, but once he settled down, he provided a glimpse of his game, letting his forehand take charge and dictate terms. He wound up the show with an ace.

The sixth-seeded Vivek will be challenged next by qualifier Gao Lei of China. The Chinese was in command against fellow qualifier Kinshuk Sharma before the latter retired. Kinshuk had shown his fighting qualities in beating Jalil Khan of Pakistan 7-6(6), 2-6, 7-6(5) in the third and final qualifying round and had also beaten another Chinese in three sets.

Vijay feels the heat

The exercise looked to have exhausted him, not to forget the oppressive humidity this day that saw five players retiring in their matches, including the champion of the Chennai event, Vijay Kannan.

Shivang Mishra made Vijay work so much to earn his points that Vijay just threw in the towel after the first set tie-break, and retired.

Last week’s finalist, Ashutosh Singh showed strength of character in overcoming exhaustion to beat qualifier Eui-Yeol Yang of Korea in the third set tie-break in an energy-sapping exercise that lasted two hours and 48 minutes.

Wild card Rohan Gajjar put out fifth seed Navdeep Singh in straight sets .

The results: (Indians unless specified) Singles (first round): Aqeel Khan (Pak) bt Guilherme Ochiai (Bra) 6-2, 2-0 (retd.); Gao Lei (Chn) bt Kinshuk Sharma 6-2, 4-1 (retd.); Vivek Shokeen bt Vishnu Vardhan 7-6(6), 6-3; Shivang Mishra b t Vijay Kannan 7-6(0) (retd.); Ashwin Vijayaraghavan bt Sriram Balaji 6-4, 3-0 (retd.); Ashutosh Singh bt Eui-Yeol Yang (Kor) 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(2); Dong-Whee Choi (Kor) bt Lance Vodicka (U.S.) 3-6, 6-1, 6-1; P. C. Vignesh bt Gursharan Singh 3-6, 2-0 (retd.); Rohan Gajjar bt Navdeep Singh 6-4, 6-2; Rohan Gide bt Ajai Selvaraj 6-2, 6-3; Tushar Liberhan bt Leandro Ferreira (Bra) 6-2, 6-0; Wang Yu Jr. (Chn) bt Purav Raja 6-4, 6-3.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Lance Vodicka (U.S.) & Wang Yu Jr. (Chn) bt Jalil Khan (Pak) & Yannick Nelord 6-0, 6-7(5), 6-2.