The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Rohan Bopanna on a mission

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 06, 2005

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Rohan Bopanna on a mission

Kamesh Srinivasan

GURGAON: Rohan Bopanna is on a mission to reclaim his Davis Cup berth and enhance his reputation as one capable of playing the big game on the big stage.

The 25-year-old Coorgi had opted to go through the grind of the satellite circuit, that has become more challenging because of the tough conditions — overwhelming heat, stiff winds, no linesmen, no ball boys — in a remote place that is cut away from civilisation, in his bid to strengthen his game and ranking.

He has started on the right note by winning the singles title in the first week though it was a bit disappointing for him to lose the doubles final.

The good thing is that his game is getting better as is his temperament while facing the challenging conditions, on and off the court.

The field does have some meritorious challengers like Prima Simpatiaji of Indonesia, the US-based Salifu Mohammed of Ghana, Richard Irwin of Britain, apart from players like Vijay Kannan, Vinod Sridhar, Vishaal Uppal who have all won titles at this level.

The seedings: 1. Rohan Bopanna, 2. Vijay Kannan, 3. Vinod Sridhar, 4. Vishaal Uppal, 5. Stephen Mitchell (RSA), 6. Richard Irwin (GBR), 7. Jaco Mathew, 8. Pathanjali Ravishankar.

The results: Qualifying event (second round): Saketh Sai Myneni bt Arjun Goutham 6-4, 7-5; Siddharth Gulati bt Pavan Polavarapu 6-3, 3-6, 6-4; Luke Campbell (GBR) bt L.S. Anantha Bhaskar 6-3, 6-0; Rohan Gide bt Farid Alam 6-1, 6-3; Shivang Mishra bt Sandeep Choudhary 7-5, 6-4; Purav Raja bt Rahil Makharia 6-1, 6-0; J. Vishnu Vardhan bt Yew Ming Si (Mas) 6-1, 6-4; Prateek Shantaraju bt Raj Sheoran 6-3, 6-2; Nitin Kirtane bt Nima Roshan (U.S) 5-7, 6-0, 6-2; Anjan Viplav bt Rohit Choudhary 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-2; Dmitri Makeev (Kaz) bt Aniket Ghaskadvi 6-2, 6-0; Guillaume Tarralle (Fra) bt Victor Maleev (Rus) 6-3, 6-1; Divyanshu Singh bt Gajapathy Pillai 6-4, 7-6(6); Yann Dupuy (Fra) bt Saurav Sukul 6-0, 6-3; Krishna Karsolia bt Manchit Madan 6-3, 6-2; Xiao Peng Lai (Hkg) bt Boris Fetbroyt (US) 6-4, 7-5.

First round: Victor Maleev bt Rafiqu Paruti 6-2, 7-6(1); Divyanshu Singh bt Ramesh Rozra 6-0, 6-2; Manchit Madan bt Ankit Patel 6-4, 6-3; Krishna Karsolia bt Chetan Dutt 6-0, 6-0; Boris Fetbroyt bt Aditya Madkekar 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-3.

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