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Tennis
By Kalyan Ashok
Fourth-seeded Ivo Heuberger of Switzerland, who beat Rohan Bopanna, exults after playing the winning shot in the Indian Oil Servo-ATP Challenger-2003 in Bangalore on Wednesday.
Two other Indians, Rohan Bopanna and Vijay Kannan, failed to make the cut. Rohan in particular was very disappointed as he crashed to a 6-1, 6-7 (2-7), 5-7 defeat against fourth seed Ivo Heuberger. Vijay Kannan was once again stopped by Fred Hemmes Jr, who won 6-3, 7-6 (8-6). Taking the centre court after the fall of Vijay Kannan and Rohan, Harsh had the onerous task of salvaging Indian camp's pride. He did that admirably with a crafty display. Harsh who was in attacking mood in the first round, played deliberately within himself and was more content with controlling the match rather than attempting an outright demolition of his rival. It was a prudent step because, Dmitry Vlasov, who won a Futures title earlier at Delhi in January, is a good hitter who relishes pace and it would have been pointless to hustle him. Harsh just kept the ball in, picked the right time to send in his winners and tied up his rival by controlling the pace. All along Harsh also did his best to hold his serve, which looked vulnerable for a while. In the first set, Harsh was off to a shaky start, dropping serve in the first game. But he kept his cool and broke back in the fourth. Both frittered away a few openings before Harsh, leading 6-5, broke Vlasov again the 12th game to take the set. In the second set, Harsh was very much in control as Vlasov made a series of mishits to drop the serve in the second and fourth games that gave Harsh a commanding 4-0 lead. Vlasov managed to break back in the fifth game, but Harsh gave no further quarter. He tightened up his play and comfortably closed the set and match at 6-3. "It was a different game altogether from the one that I played in the first round. I didn't go flat out and played with a lot more control and confidence and made sure that Vlasov didn't get to play any big shots, which he does when given a good pace. I think I was far more relaxed during this match and aim to play that way lot more,'' said Harsh, while cooling off in the gym with a workout. He meets qualifier, Fred Hemmes Jr of Netherlands in the quarterfinals. It was an encore for Hemmes Jr. who had beaten Vijay Kannan in the final qualifying round. Lucky loser Kannan's luck ran out against Hemmes, who seemed to have figured him out well. Hemmes quickly sewed up the first set with an early break. Kannan tried hard and opened strongly with his forehand in the second set. He even went up 4-3 with a break in the seventh but that advantage was squandered in the very next game when he dropped serve. The set soon spilled into a tie-breaker and Hemmes called the shots racing to 5-2 lead before Kannan caught up with him at 6-all. Then he blew it all away with a double fault. The way Bopanna began it looked as though he was in a tearing hurry to finish the tie. He attacked with zest, hitting his customary big forehand and blasted aces. He took the set at 6-1. In the second set a much-composed Heuberger came up with solid returns to neutralise Bopanna's big serve. Heuberger himself is a good server and Rohan did have a few problems coping with it. Both had chances to gain decisive breaks, Bopanna in the fifth and Heuberger in the sixth, but they let these slip. In the tie-breaker Heuberger won 7-2. Rohan dominated the decider as he ran up a 3-0 and later led 4-1. Heuberger didn't give up and broke Bopanna in the seventh game and held on to his serve to make it 4-all. The pressure was very much on Bopanna, who hit twice over the baseline and conceded a break in the 11th game. Heuberger seized that chance and despite a double fault, was very much in control. "It is very disappointing to lose after being on top in the decider, this again underlined the need to play very consistent game at this level,'' said the Indian No.1, who however moved up in the doubles partnering Prakash Amritraj. While the focus remained on the Indian show, the Swiss, Yves Allegro, ranked 247, toppled the top seed Noam Okum of Israel 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 in a battle of attrition. The tie was marked by some good rallies and big hitting. Another seed to crash out was No.7 Tuomas Ketola of Finland who went down in three sets to Peter Wessles of Netherlands at 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 0-6. The second seed, Gregory Carraz of France stayed on course, blasting qualifier, Tudor Enev of Bulgaria at 6-3, 6-3 while eighth seed, Gilles Elseneer of Belgium defeated Abel Maximilian of Germany 4-6, 6-2, 6-1. The quarterfinal line-up: Harsh Mankad v Fred Hemmes Jr (Ned), Ivo Heuberger (Sui) v Louis Vosloo (RSA); Peter Wessels (Bel) v Gregory Carraz (Fra). The results (Indians unless specified, prefix indicate seedings): Fred Hemmes Jr (Ned) bt Vijay Kannan 6-3, 7-6 (8-6); 4-Ivo Heuberger (Sui) bt Rohan Bopanna 1-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5; Peter Wessles (Ned ) bt 7-Tuomas Ketola (Fin) 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-0; Louis Vosloo (RSA) bt Alun Jones (Aus) 6-2, 1-6, 6-1; Harsh Mankad bt Dmitry Vlasov (Rus) 7-5, 6-3; Yves Allegro (Sui) bt 1-Noam Okum (Isr) 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3; 2-Gregory Carraz (Fra) bt Tudor Enev (Bul) 6-3, 6-3; 8-Gilles Elseneer (Bel) bt A. Maximilian (Ger) 4-6, 6-2, 6-1. Doubles: quarterfinals: Y. Allegro & Bachelot ( Fra) bt Nathan Healy & Alun Jones (Aus ) 6-1, 6-2. Pre-quarterfinals: Prakash Amritraj & Rohan Bopanna bt Vijay Kannan & Ajay Ramaswamy 7-6 (12-10), 6-4; Della'Acqua & F. Luzzi (Ita) bt Yen-Hsu Lu & D. Udomchoke (Tha) 7-6 (8-6), 4-6, 7-6 (7-5); Noam Okum (Isr) & Arvind Parmar (G.Br) bt B. Rhenquist (Swe) & L. Vosloo (RSA) 6-2, 7-6 (7-4).
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