It was a good day for Indians in the $15,000 ITF Futures tennis tournament as three of them advanced to the second round with impressive victories, in Mumbai, on Tuesday.
Unseeded Vijay Kannan was the most impressive, scoring an upset victory over seventh seed Jakub Hasek of the Czech Republic. After losing the first set, he rallied splendidly to win a marathon tussle which lasted an hour and 50 minutes at 4-6, 7-6 (16-14) 6-4.
Equally impressive was eighth seed Harsh Mankad and Rohan Bopanna though they did not have to go through the ordeal of three sets to make the next round.
Indian Davis Cupper Mankad crushed unseeded countryman Sunil Kumar Sipaeya 6-3, 6-2 in an hour and ten minutes while his Davis Cup team mate Rohan Bopanna scored a thumping 6-3, 6-1 victory over compatriot and wild card Parantap Chaturvedi.
In a match that lasted 70 minutes, Bopanna, taught his 19-year-old opponent a few lessons on handling pressure. Twice in the second set, Bopanna was down 15-40 serve but came out of trouble with some booming serves.
In the first set, he toyed with his opponent, effecting breaks in the seventh and ninth games, to take the set at 6-3.
The second was one-sided as Bopanna allowed Chaturvedi just the fourth game before wrapping the set at 6-1.
English qualifier Jonathan Marray took an hour and 32 minutes to sideline lucky loser Boy Wijnamalen of the Netherlands, who replaced top seed Wang You Tzuoo of Chinese Taipei, 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 6-4, while fourth seed Fred Hemmes of the Netherlands needed a first set tie-break to beat qualifier Marcel Felder of Uruguay 7-6 (7-1) 6-3 in an hour and 25 minutes.
Sixth seed Lukas Dlouhy too made it to the second round with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over wild card Jaco Mathew of India in just 55 minutes while unseeded Juraj Hasko of Slovakia subdued unseeded Jerome Almagrida of France 6-1, 6-4.
Results (men's singles first round): Jonathan Marray (GBR) bt Boy Wijnamalen (Ned) 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-4; Fred Hemmes (Ned) bt Marcel Felder (Uru) 7-6 (7-1), 6-3; Rohan Bopanna (Ind) bt Parantap Chaturvedi (Ind) 6-3, 6-1; Lukas Dlouhy (Cze) bt Jaco Mathew (Ind) 6-2 6-0; Juraj Hasko (Svk) bt Jerome Almagrida (Fra) 6-1 6-4; Vijay Kannan (Ind) bt Jakub Hasek (Cze) 4-6, 7-6 (16-14), 6-4; Harsh Mankad (Ind) bt Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (Ind) 6-3, 6-2.
Doubles (first round): Jonathan Marray/ David Sherwood (GBR) bt Kedar Tembe/ Amod Wakalkar (Ind) 6-2, 6-4; Alessandro Da Col/ Giuseppe Menga (Ita) bt Matwee Middlekoop/ Boy Wijnmalen (Ned) 6-2, 6-4; Nitin Kirtane/ Sandeep Kirtane (Ind) bt Lukas Dlouhy/ Jakub Hasek (Cze) 6-3, 1-6, 6-0; Harsh Mankad/Vishal Uppal (Ind) bt Saurabh Kohli/ Anjan Viplav (Ind) 6-4, 6-2; Tomas Cakl (Cze)/ Juraj Hasko (Svk) bt Kamala Kannan/Rishi Sridhar (Ind) 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2; Vijay Kannan/ Ajay Ramaswamy (Ind) bt Manoj Mahadevan/Vinod Sridhar (Ind) 6-3, 6-2; Jasper Smit (Ned)/ Lesske Daniel (Ger) bt Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (Ind)/ Marcel Felder (Uru) 2-6, 7-5, 6-4.