Two Indian pairs in ITF quarters

Our Correspondent

Two Indian pairs -- Rohan Bopanna/Vijay Kannan and Mustafa Ghouse/Vishal Uppal -- made it to the men's doubles quarter-finals in the ITF Futures tennis tournament in Bombay on Tuesday.

The former was forced to rally, after dropping the first set at 4-6, to get the better of another Indian pair in Manoj Mahadevan and Maha Rishi Sridhar 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, in one hour 42 minutes, while Ghouse and Uppal, the second seeds, had things their way while beating unseeded Lauri Kiiski and Tuomas Nishkakangas of Finland 6-1, 6-4.

Local lad Kedar Shah partnering John Doran of Ireland too made it to the last eight with a 7-6 (10-8), 6-3 win over the Indian combination of Nitin Kirtane and Saurav Panja.

The Slovakian top seeded pair of Viktor Bruthans and Branislav Sekac had their task cut out before making it to the last eight stage. They were given a scare by Leslie Demiliani of France and Dario Pizzato of Italy before emerging 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 winners.

Results (men's doubles) first round: Viktor Bruthans/ Branislav Sekac (Svk) bt Leslie Demiliani (Fra)/Dario Pizzato (Ita) 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, Rohan Bopanna/Vijay Kannan (Ind) bt Maha Rishi Sridhar/Manoj Mahadevan (Ind) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, Tomas Janc/Michal Mertinak (Svk) bt Hans Peter Gaber (Aut)/Stephen Nugent (Irl) 6-0, 6-0, Anton Kokurin (Uzb)/Sergei Krotiouk (Rus) bt Shivshankar Kanbargimath/Vinod Sridhar (Ind) 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, Ben Gudzelak/Jonathan Marray (GBR) bt Kamala Kannan/Arun Prakash (Ind) 6-2, 6-3, Juraj Hasko (Svk)/Josef Nesticky (Cze) bt Kamil Patel (Mri)/Efe Ustundag (Tur) 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), Kedar Shah (Ind)/John Doran (Irl) bt Nitin Kirtane/Saurav Panja (Ind) 7-6 (10-8), 6-3, Mustafa Ghouse/Vishal Uppal (Ind) bt Lauri Kiiski/Tuomas Niskakangas (Fin) 6-1, 6-4.