Sanam enters final qualifying round

India's top youngster Sanam Singh stood one match away from making it to the 32-man draw of the USD 3,60,000 Kingfisher Airlines Men's Tennis Open in Mumbai on Saturday after winning his first two rounds in the qualifying stage of the tournament at the cost of compatriots Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Christopher Marquis.

Sanam got the better of Jeevan, who retired in the third set when trailing 1-2, after recovering from one set down and then did not have to sweat it out in the second round because Marquis failed to turn up for the tie.

Also through to the third and final qualifying round, to be held on Sunday at the Cricket Club of India, were Japan's Gouichi Motomura and Britain's James Auckland who got first round byes.

Motomura ousted China's Xiao Long Yin, who had prevailed over India's Vijayendra Laad in three sets in the opening qualifying round held in the morning, 6-2, 6-2 while Auckland whipped another home country player Purav Raja 6-3, 6-4.

Raja had beaten compatriot Benjamin Xavier in straight sets in the first round held in the morning.

The results:

Singles (second qualifying round): Sanam Singh (Ind) w/o Christopher Marquis (Ind); Gouichi Motomura (Jpn) bt Xiao Long Yin (Chn) 6-2, 6-2; James Auckland (Brit) bt Purav Raja (Ind) 6-3, 6-4.

First qualifying round: Xiao Long Yin (Chn) bt Vijayendra Laad (Ind) 3-6, 6-3, 6-1; Christopher Marquis (Ind) bt Akshay Bajoria (Ind) 6-3, 6-4; Sanam Singh (Ind) bt Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (Ind) 3-6, 6-4, 4-1 (retd.), Purav Raja (Ind) bt Benjamin Xavier (Ind) 6-0, 6-3.

Nishank Mishra (Ind) bt Adedin Sham (Ind) 6-1, 6-1; Aditya Madkekar (Ind) bt Alon Moses (Ind) 6-0, 6-1; Rahul Makharia (Ind) bt Shawtawu Engineer (Ind) 6-0, 6-0; Mustafa Ghouse (Ind) bt Krishank Shah (Ind) 6-0, 6-1.

Shivang Mishra (Ind) bt Mithun Murali (Ind) 2-6, 6-1, 7-5; Arjun Goutham (Ind) bt Kiran Nandkumar (Ind) 7-5, 6-4; Vishnu Vardhan (Ind) bt Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (Ind) 7-5, 6-3.