Three seeds crash out in
the first round

Fifth seed Manoj Mahadevan, sixth seed Hayato Furukawa of Japan and seventh seed Ivan Syroy of Russia crashed out in the opening round, in the first leg of the Satellite tennis tournament in Delhi on Tuesday.

Interestingly, all the three seeds lost either to a wild card or a qualifier.

In an all-India affair, qualifier Sandep Kirtane accounted for compatriot Manoj Mahadevan in straight sets. Kirtane yielded no points to Mahadevan in the first set. But the fifth seed fought back in the second though the effort came too late, as Kirtane managed to win the set to claim the match at 6-0,7-5.

Wild carder Vishal Punna of India stunned Hayato Furkawa in straight sets.The young Indian conceded only four points to his seeded opponent before emeging an easy 6-4, 6-0 winner.

Qualifier Roy Sichel of Isreal accounted for the third upset, scoring a hard-fought win over Russian Ivan Syrov.

Sichel won the first set easily, conceding only three points but the seventh seed fought back in the second set to claim it via the tie breaker. However, Sichel outplayed the Russian in the crucial third set to win the match 6-3, 6-7(4),.6-2.

Top seed Mustafa Ghouse of India had an easy march to the next round as his German rival Sebastian Niedermayer conceded the match due to injury after leading 5-4 in the first set.

Second seed Tomer Suissa of Isreal had to wage a grim battle to overpower qualifier Serguei Demekhine of Russia in three sets. Suissa lost the first set but staged a fine comeback to win the next two and move into the second round. He won 5-7, 7-6(3), 6-4.

Third seed Nitin Kirtane had an easy outing against Isreal's Elad Stern, winning 6-2, 6-2.

Eliran Dooyev, the fourth ranked Israeli, brushed aside qualifier Rohan Gajjar's challange to make it to the next round. Doovey had a tough time in the first set which he won in tie breaker but he blanked Rohan in the second to emerge a 7-6(3), 6-0 winner.

In other matches, eighth seed Giunior Ghedina (Germany) overpowered Russian Igor Levin 6-0, 7-6(3); Vishal Uppal accounted for wild carder Anant Sitaram 6-3, 6-4; Vijay Kannan outplayed another wild card Nipun Gupta 6-1, 6-4; Isreal's Raviv Volkovotzky beat qualifier Naoki Arimota (Japan) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Yesterday's report

Wild card Nishank Mishra goes down fighting