Bhupathi makes winning
singles return
Shailesh Soni
Indian doubles ace Mahesh Bhupathi made a winning return to the singles circuit, in the $10,000 ITF F1 Futures tennis tournament in Pattaya, Thailand on Wednesday.
The Indian, a wildcard entrant at the event, was made to work hard to defeat qualifier Matthieu Amgwerd of Switzerland 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) in his first round match.
Mahesh, who is currently ranked 977 on the ATP listing, will face the 773th ranked Robert Krause of South Africa in the second round. Krause shocked sixth seed James Auckland of Great Britain 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-5 in the first round.
Top seed Aisam Qureshi of Pakistan also crashed out, losing to wildcard Attapol Rithiwatanapong of Thailand 6-2, 6-7(5), 2-6. Both Qureshi and Auckland were in the same half of the draw where Mahesh is placed.
Indian Davis Cupper Syed Fazaluddin was also in the draw but withdrew and was replaced by lucky loser Shivang Mishra. But Shivang went down to wildcard Sonchat Ratiwatana of Thailand 4-6, 2-6 in the first round.
Rohan Bopanna could not make it for the singles qualifier while Mustafa Ghouse went down in the first round.
In the doubles, Mustafa Ghouse and Rohan Bopanna lost to the Indonesian pair of Hendri Susilo Pramono and Febi Widhiyanto 3-6, 1-6.
Mahesh, who had played only three singles matches this year -- and that too without any sucess, is planning to take a crack at resurrecting his singles career. With the ATP season ending early, the Indian opted to improve his singles game. He will be playing in Bangkok, Vietnam and the Philippines events over the next three weeks.
