The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Rastogi starts favourite

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 27, 2005

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Rastogi starts favourite

Kirti Patil

GURGAON: Fresh from winning his maiden Satellite title, Karan Rastogi starts favourite as he aims to improve his ATP ranking points when the second leg of the ITF Satellite tennis circuit begins at the NTA Complex here on Tuesday.

Rastogi weathered Kazakhstan's Alexey Kedriouk in three sets on Sunday, a win that he will always remember as special.

In a field that comprised Irishman Peter Clarke, the winner of the circuit last year and Kedriouk, who is ranked 450 in the ATP rankings, Rastogi's triumph was commendable.

Rastogi's win over Kedriouk carries hope for the other Indians to do well also.

The Kazakh had outlasted Davis Cupper Rohan Bopanna in the Tashkent Asian championship early this month, which in no way was a matter of chance.

Second seed

As for the highest-ranked Indian, Sunil Kumar, he would like to prove himself despite falling out early in the first leg.

The Chandigarh left-hander is again seeded second behind Clarke, and it is time he carried the Indian flag little further than he managed last week.

Vinod Sridhar, Vijay Kannan, Vishaal Uppal, Tushar Liberhan, Vivek Shokeen and Punna Vishal are the other Indians keen to earn valuable points from the circuit.

As the first leg of the circuit spilled over into Sunday, the qualifying matches for the second leg started only on Monday. Two Frenchmen, Guillaume Tarralle and Clement Rousseau and India's Ravi Shankar Pathanjali, were the three who made it to the main draw after winning the third and final round in the qualifying event.

The remaining matches would be completed on Tuesday morning before the first round main draw matches get underway.

The seedings:

1. Peter Clarke (Irl), 2. Sunil Kumar, 3. Alexey Kedriouk (Kaz), 4. Vinod Sridhar, 5. Vijay Kannan, 6. Karan Rastogi, 7. Vishaal Uppal, 8. Salifu Mohammed (Gha).

The results:

Qualifying (final round): Ravi Shanker Pathanjali bt Rafique Paruti 6-1, 6-8; Guillaume Tarralle (Fra) bt Prashant Sawant 6-0, 6-2; Clement Rousseau (Fra) bt Siddharth Gulati 6-1, 6-3.

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