NEWS
OTHER SPORTS
DIARY
PEOPLE
MATCH REPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Bhupathi in second round of Wimbledon qualifier

Shailesh Soni

India's doubles star Mahesh Bhupathi extended his Wimbledon qualifier winning streak to seven matches, with a nice and easy victory in the first round yesterday.

Mahesh defeated Ivo Heuberger 6-2, 6-2 to avenge the close defeat he suffered last August, when the two met at the New Haven Pilot Pen qualifying rounds.

Heuberger, 23, was one of the 16 players to qualify for the Wimbledon main draw along with Mahesh last year.

Bhupathi will play Jeff Coetzee of South Africa in the second round later today.

Coetzee, 22, is a very talented player, who came inside the top 250 after topping two Satellite tournaments (ITF South Africa and ITF Central Africa) in late 1998. But he hasn't had much success in the Challenger circuit. One might remember him losing to Paes, though in three sets, in the Delhi Challenger this year. Like many South African players, he too is good on grass. He defeated Jean-Michel Pequery of France in the first round.

In other first round matches, Peter Tramacchi lost to 18th seed Maurice Ruah of Venezuela, though in two tie-breakers, while Sandon Stolle of Australia defeated Sergi Duran of Spain.

The second round line-up is: Bhupathi versus Coetzee and Stolle versus Ruah. The winners of these matches will battle it out for the one qualifier spot.

India's top women's player Nirupama Vaidyanathan will face 15th seed Nadejda Petrova of Russia in the first round of the Wimbledon qualifiers today.

It's not an easy draw for Nirupama, as the women's qualifiers at Wimbledon are typically very tough, with only eight spots for qualifying in, and 64 players, mostly all inside the top 200, competing.

Nirupama has never played Nadejda Petrova before.