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Tennis
By Kalyan Ashok
India's Vijay Kannan stretches for a backhand return during his match against sixth-seeded Bjorn Rhenquist of Sweden on the second day of the Indian Oil Servo-ATP Challenger-2003 tennis championship in Bangalore on Tuesday.
Earlier, Rohan Bopanna made the round two with a clinical demolition of Arvind Parmar of Britain 6-4, 6-2. With Harsh Mankad already in the second round, the Indians more than justified the wild cards that were given to them in this championship. Only one to lose out on the day was Prakash Amritraj, who unfortunately, sprained the ankle in which he was earlier nursing an injury and went without much fight to Bulgarian qualifier Todor Enev 1-6, 3-6. Till 9 in the morning, Vijay Kannan wasn't sure of getting a spot in the main draw, but with Takabiro Tarichi of Japan, not reporting for the tie, his slot went to Vijay Kannan. Kannan was tentative at the start against the 181-ranked Rhenquist, who is basically back court player. The Swede did not give much away and broke his rival twice in quick succession to take the set at 6-2. But Kannan fought back serving and returning with lot more consistency and kept his rival on the move with some solid hitting on both flanks. He broke in the fourth game to take 3-1 lead and simply stayed on course to take the set at 6-3. In the decider Kannan maintaining the tempo cracked Rhenquist's serve in the first game but dropped his own in the fourth game. But Kannan stepped up the pace and cracked a shaky Rhenquist again the seventh game and sealed the contest in his favour. "I am happy to win coming as a lucky loser and this is the first time that I had won a main draw tie in a Challenger. I was bit defensive in the first game as he wasn't giving much pace, but by the second set I was playing much better and I knew I was in with a chance as long as I hold the serve and which I did,'' said Kannan. He now meets qualifier Fred Hemmes Jr. It will be a grudge match as Vijay Kannan had lost in a three setter to the Dutchman in the final qualifying round tie. Earlier in the morning session, the Indian No.1 Rohan Bopanna rained aces on a hapless Arvind Parmar of Britain and won 6-4, 6-2 under an hour. Rohan playing in front of cheering home crowd hitsome huge forehands and belted his big serves. His returns too were too hot handle for the Briton of Indian descent who is ranked No. 3 in UK. Rohan broke Parmar in the third game of the first set and with his first serve bang on target there was nothing much Parmar could do to recover from the early setback. Serving for the set Rohan was pushed to two deuces before he aced his way out. In the second set, Rohan cracked his rival in the fifth game with a searing cross-court winner and he never took the foot off the pedal as he slammed his way to yet another break in the seventh game. Rohan 5-2 up then roared to grandstand finish, blasting three aces to wrap the set and match. "With the first serve working so well and getting my returns right back, I had no problem in the tie and it feels good whenever you play well,'' said Rohan, who takes on the fourth seed, Ivo Heuberger of Switzerland. Prakash Amritraj, after dropping the serve in the first game of the match, took a nasty spill trying hard for a return and that aggravated an old ankle injury. He got back into the tie after medical attention, but he was nowhere near his best and with the Bulgarian showing little mercy Prakash tumbled to a quick defeat. Prakash however, said that he hoped to play the doubles tie (with Rohan Bopanna) on Wednesday and has asked for a rescheduling of the tie to get little more time. Louis Vosloo of South Africa pulled off the second upset of the day when he accounted for a lacklustre fifth seed Yen Hsu Lu of Taipei 6-2, 6-1. The top seed Noam Okum of Israel and seventh seed Tuomas Ketola of Finland however, had it easy. Okum beat Rodolophe Cadart of France 6-2, 6-3 while, Ketola beat Gouichi Motomura 6-3, 6-1. In doubles, the Russian pair of Schukin and Vlasov accounted for Harsh Mankad and Vishal Uppal 6-4, 6-4. The results (all Indians unless specified. Prefix indicates seedings): Singles (first round): 7-Tuomas Ketola (Fin) bt Gouichi Motoumura (Jpn) 6-3, 6-1; Dmitry Vlasov (Rus) bt Yuri Schukin (Rus) 6-0, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2; Abel Maximilian (Ger) bt Jonathan Erlich (Isr) 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 7-6 (9-7); Rohan Bopanna bt Arvind Parmar (GBR) 6-4, 6-2; Fred Hemmes Jr (Ned) bt Johan Settergren (Swe) 6-4, 7-6 (7-5); Peter Wessels (Ned) bt Federico Luzzi (Ita) 6-4, 6-4; 1-Noam Okum (Isr) bt Rodolphe Cadart (Fra) 6-2, 6-3; Louis Voslov (RSA) bt Yen-Hsu Lu (TPE) 6-2, 6-1; Vijay Kannan bt 6-Bjorn Rhenquist (Swe) 2-6, 6-3, 6-4; Todor Enev (Bul) bt Prakash Amritraj 6-1, 6-3. Doubles (first round): Schukin & Vlasov (Rus ) bt Mankad & Uppal 6-4, 6-4; N. Healey & A. Jones (Aus) bt Bohaboy (US) & Motomura (Jpn) 6-1, 7-5; R. Cadart & G. Carraz (Fra) bt Elseneer (Bel) & Heuberger (Swi) 7-6 (7-5), 6-3; Y. Allegro (Swi) & Bachelot (Fra) bt J. Marray & D. Sherwood (GBR) 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (9-7), 6-3.
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