The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Udomchoke ousted

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Thursday, Apr 27, 2006

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Sport - Tennis

Udomchoke ousted

Kalyan Ashok

DHARWAD: Second seed and the winner at Chikmagalur, Danai Udomchoke, failed to survive a barrage of aces unleashed by the towering Australian Luke Bourgeois and made his exit from the PVG Cup ATP Challenger tennis series here on Wednesday.

Bourgeois won the first round contest, which lasted about 160 minutes 7-6(3), 6-4. The finalist at Chikmagalur, Toshide Matsui, the third seed from Japan, also bowed out. He lost to Henry Adjel Darko of Ghana 6-4, 6-2.

Udomchoke was virtually choked by his rival, who set a scorching pace and served with power and fury. The Aussie fired close to 23 aces in the tie and that curbed Udomchoke from playing his patent game of patience and guile.

In the first set, the two players ended up with a tie-breaker tussle going with the serve. Bourgeois won the tie-breaker 7-3 after leading 4-1. In the second set, a single break, in the very first game, was good enough for Bourgeois to set up his victory.

Completely outplayed

Udomchoke admitted that he was outplayed completely. "I just couldn't get going, he was coming strong with his first serve and I had problems with my returns and I was not consistent enough,'' he said. Udomchoke had moved to a career-best ranking of 98 after last week's victory.

It is going to be a tough task for the Thai Davis Cupper to keep his place in the top 100 if more such reverses follow.

Bourgeois was pleased with his effort. "The idea was to stop him from settling down and playing his passing shots. I did that effectively as my first serve worked nicely,'' he said.

Sunil Kumar loses

When Sunil Kumar Sipaeya won the National hard court title in 1999 at the age of 16, he was hailed as a great new find. But over the years, Sunil Kumar's performance at best has been patchy, thanks to a back injury, which prevented him from playing at his best.

Lu Yen Hsun of Taipei defeated Sunil Kumar 6-2, 6-3, but not before the latter showed some glimpses of his old spark. He played some great shots, but his rival, who kept drilling in accurate returns and teady serves, had the measure of Sunil Kumar.

Lu, who conceded his semifinal match at Chikmagalur due to dehydration, was in his elements, as he broke his opponent in the second game of the first set and again in the eighth to take the set. In the second set too the break came in the second game. Sunil Kumar tested Lu in the third game and forced him to two deuces before Lu belted a cross-court volley, which had Sunil Kumar stay rooted at the backcourt.

Lu with a 3-0 lead never looked back and closed the set and the mach at 6-3 firing three aces in the ninth game.

Quereshi advances

Aisam Quereshi of Pakistan moved past Romanian Adrian Cruciat, who conceded the match due to cramps, after trailing 7-5, 2-1. The Korean top seed, Lee Hyung Taik won the opener against Sebastian Rieschik of Germany 6-3, 6-3.

The results (First round): Singles: Lu Yen-Hsun (Tpe) bt S. Sunil Kumar (Ind) 6-2, 6-3; Orest Tereschuk (Ukr) bt Kiran Nandakumar (Ind) 6-0, 6-3; Go Soeda (Jpn) bt Nathan Thompson (U.S.A.) 6-3, 6-2; Henry Adjel Darko (Gha) bt Toshide Matsui (Jpn) 6-4, 6-2; Luke Bourgeois (Aut) bt Danai Udomchoke (Tha) 7-6(3), 6-4; Aisam Quershi (Pak) bt Adrian Cruciat (Rom) 7-5, 2-1 (conceded); Kamil Kapkovic (Svk) bt Laurent Recouder (Fra) 6-1, 7-6(9); Lee Hyung Taik (Kor) bt Sebastian Rieschick (Ger) 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles: Bourgeois/Chiudinelli bt Matsui/Soeda 3-6, 6-3, 12-10 (super tie-breaker); Prakash Amritraj/Rohan Bopanna bt Sunil Kumar/Vishal Uppal 7-6(6), 6-2; Karan Rastogi/Asuhutosh Singh bt Mustafa Ghouse/Aisam Quereshi 4-6, 7-5, 10-6 (super tie-breaker); Istomin/Tereschuk bt Vijay Kannan/Phillip Knight 7-5, 6-3.

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