Unseeded Sridhar causes an upset

Unseeded Rishi Sridhar caused the lone upset of the day when he knocked out sixth seed Mustafa Ghouse to enter the second round of the $10,000 MSLTA-International Tennis Federation tournament, at the Deccan Gymkhana tennis courts, in Pune on Monday.

Playing brilliant tennis, Sridhar upset Ghouse 6-4, 6-3 in a match which lasted one hour and 28 minutes.

Ghouse was broken in the 10th game after serving three double-faults as Sridhar went on to take the set at 6-4.

After breaking Ghouse in the sixth game of second set, Rishi then stuck to the task of playing percentage tennis to wrap up the match by winning second set at 6-3.

Second seed Eyal Elrich of Israel made it to the second round, brushing past Vinod Sridhar of India 7-5, 5-7, 7-5 in two hours.

Vinod Sridhar dominated the match but proved a trifle unlucky as he lost a crucial 4-1 lead in the third set and went down fighting to second seed and world no. 557 Elrich.

In the other singles matches wild card entrant Sunil Kumar scored a creditable 6-3, 6-3 victory over Meir Deri, ranked 1287 in the world, while local hero Nitin Kirtane served out Shivang Mishra 6-2, 7-5; Kamala Kannan defeated Shivshankar Kanbargimath 6-2, 7-5.

In the doubles first round, Deri and Eliran Dooyev of Israel upset second seeded Abdul Hamid Makhamov of Uzbekistran and Michal Varsanyi of Slovakia 6-2, 6-3.

Results (singles):

Rishi Sidhar (Ind) bt Mustafa Ghouse (Ind) 6-4, 6-3; Nitin Kirtane (Ind) bt Shivang Mishra (Ind) 6-2, 7-5; Sunil Kumar bt Meir Deri 6-3, 6-3; Eyal Elrich bt Vinod Sridhar 7-5, 5-7, 7-5; Kamala Kannan bt Shivhsnakar Kanbargimath 6-2, 7-5.

Doubles: Meir Deri/Eliran Dopoyev (Israel) bt Abdul Hamid (Uzb)/Michal Varsani (Svk) 6-2, 6-3; Roger Krajcovic (Hun)/Jurek Stasiak bt Ciaran Moore (Rsa)/Eladstern (Isr) 6-1, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4; Sunil Kumar/Kedar Shah (Ind) bt Abhishek Tamhane/Kedar Tembe (Ind) 7-6 (7-3), 6-2; Manoj Mahadevan/Rishi Sridhar (Ind) bt Ajay Chaowdapalli/Yasser Arafat (Ind) 6-0, 6-3.