Uppal shocked; Kirtane bows out

Our Correspondent

Little-known Kedar Tembe created a flutter when he upstaged Indian Davis Cupper Vishal Uppal in the US$ 10,000 ITF Futures tennis tournament in Bombay on Monday.

The local wild card entrant combined grit with aggression to overcome his seasoned adversary, who was the only Indian to be seeded among eight seeds, 7-6 (7-4), 5-7, 6-4 to enter the men's singles second round.

Joining him in the second round were three Indians -- Rohan Bopanna, Rishi Sridhar and Manoj Mahadevan. The former needed a first set tie-break to beat Tamas Gyorgy of Hungary 7-6 (9-7), 6-4 in one hour 20 minutes while Sridhar got the better of countryman and qualifier Nipun Gupta 6-2, 6-1. Mahadevan beat Kedar Shah, who had clinched two of the eight berths for qualifiers on Sunday, 6-2, 7-5.

India national champion Nitin Kirtane, too did not last long in the tournament. He was beaten by second seed Viktor Bruthans of Slovakia 3-6, 3-6.

Five more Indians fell by the wayside in the first round. They were Mustafa Ghouse, Vijay Kannan, Vinod Sridhar and Vijayendra Laad.

However, the day's honours went to Tembe. He started in whirlwind fashion by breaking Uppal in the second game itself and then held for a 3-0 lead. Uppal did well to break back in the seventh game to cut the lead to 3-4 and then hold serve to draw level at 4-4 befoe the first set went into the tie-breaker, where Tembe served and volleyed with better consistency to win 9-7 and take the set.

The second set was as keenly contested with boh players giving little away till Uppal efected a break in the 12th game. He then held serve and proceded to take the set 7-5.

The third set was a battle royal. Games went with serve till the eighth when Tembe got what proved to be the all-important break in the ninth game. He then held to take the set and match.

Results:

Men's singles (first round): Juraj Hasko (Svk) bt Jonathan Marray (Gbr) 6-3, 6-4;Anton Kokurin (Uzb) bt Mustafa Ghouse (Ind) 3-0 (conceded), Tomas Janci (Svk) bt Vijay Kannan (Ind) 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5); K Tembe (Ind) bt V Uppal (Ind) 7-6 (7-4), 5-7, 6-4; Miloslav Grolmus (Svk) bt Vinod Sridhar (Ind) 6-2, 6-1; Efe Ustundag (Tur) bt Josef Nesticky (Cze) 6-2, 6-1; Branislav Sekac (Svk) bt Sergei Krotiouk (Rus) 6-3, 6-2; Baptiste Dupuy (Fra) bt Leslie Demiliani (Fra) 7-6 (8-6) conceeded; M Mahadevan (Ind) bt K Shah (Ind) 6-2, 7-5; Michal Mertinak (Svk) bt Stephen Nugent (Irl) 7-6 (7-4), 6-0; Kamil Patel (Mri) bt Vijayedra Laad (Ind) 6-4, 6-4; M R Sridhar (Ind) bt N Gupta (Ind) 6-2, 6-1; R Bopanna (Ind) bt G Tamas (Hun) 7-6 (9-7), 6-4;, Viktor Bruthans (Svk) bt Nitin Kirtane (Ind) 6-3, 6-3.