The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Prakash makes it to second round

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Prakash makes it to second round

NEWPORT: India’s Prakash Amritraj, son of retired tennis star Vijay Amritraj, rallied to win his first-round match at the $385,000 ATP Hall of Fame Championships here on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old wild card entrant defeated Australia’s Joseph Sirianni 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-4 to book a second-round match with big-serving American standout John Isner in the final grass-court event of the season. Isner, the fifth seed, won his opener over compatriot Jesse Levine 6-3, 6-1.

The Isner-Amritraj winner will face another U.S.-India match-up winner, top seed Mardy Fish or qualifier Rohan Bopanna, for a quarterfinal spot.

Indians advance

Amritraj also booked a second round berth in the doubles event along with Giles Muller as the wild card pair stunned American second seeds Scott Lipsky and David Martin 7-6(4), 3-6, 10-7 in the first round.

Also advancing was Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi. The fourth-seeded pair defeated Americans Tripp Phillips and Jim Thomas 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in their first round match.

Safin rallies to win

At Bastad, Wimbledon semifinalist Marat Safin rebounded from an early 3-0 deficit to beat Marc Lopez of Spain 7-6(6), 7-5 in the first round of the clay-court Swedish Open on Tuesday.

“It was tough because coming from grass it is a little bit different surface,” Safin said after his first match in Bastad in 10 years.

“He has great hands and he is also a clay-court specialist. If he had won the first set I think it would have been a tough one because he is the kind of person that goes with the confidence.”

Moya exits

Fifth-seeded Carlos Moya, the champion in 2002 and a semifinalist last year, squandered a match point in falling to Potito Starace 6-7(4), 7-6(6), 6-4 in his first match since a shoulder injury forced him to miss Wimbledon. Starace meets Safin next.

Eighth-seeded Robin Soderling beat Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-1, 6-7(4), 7-5 and fellow Swede Thomas Johansson defeated compatriot Filip Prpic 7-6(4), 6-3 and will meet fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic in the second round.

Seventh-seeded Jarkko Nieminen of Finland rallied to beat Sergio Roitman of Argentina 6-4, 6-2 in a match which started on Monday and was suspended by rain.

Important results:

At Newport: ATP Hall of Fame Championships: First round: Frank Dancevic bt Taylor Dent 3-6, 7-5, 6-1; Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi bt Benjamin Becker 7-5, 7-6(5); Prakash Amritraj bt Joseph Sirianni 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-4; John Isner bt Jesse Levine 6-3, 6-1.

At Bastad: ATP Swedish Open: First round: Potito Starace bt Carlos Moya 6-7(4), 7-6(6), 6-4; Jarkko Nieminen bt Sergio Roitman 6-4, 6-2; Robin Soderling bt Fabic Fognini 6-1, 6-7(4), 7-5; Thomas Johansson bt Filip Prpic 7-6(4), 6-3; Olivier Rochus bt Marc Gicquel 6-3, 6-4; Marat Safin bt Marc Lopez 7-6(6), 7-5; Ervin Eleskovic bt Filippo Volandri 6-4, 6-4; Jonas Bjorkman bt Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-1.

At Gstaad: ATP Swiss Open: Second round: Marin Cilic bt Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-3, 6-4; Guillermo Canas w/o Kristof Vliegen; Igor Andreev bt Florent Serra 7-5, 6-4. First round: Nicolas Kiefer bt Gianluca Naso 6-3, 6-2; Victor Hanescu bt Olivier Patience 7-6(4), 6-2; Dominik Meffert bt Andreas Seppi 6-2, 5-7, 6-4; Flavio Cipolla bt Jiri Vanek 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

At Stuttgart: ATP Mercedes Cup: First round: Augustin Calleri bt Jurgen Melzer 7-6(3), 6-4; Eduardo Schwank bt Guillermo Coria 0-6, 6-1, 6-2; Lukas Rosol bt Martin Fischer 6-2, 6-4; Yuri Schukin bt Carlos Berlocq 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

At Palermo: WTA Palermo International: First round: Galina Voskoboeva bt Emilie Loit 4-6, 6-3, 0-1, retd.; Han Xinyun bt Angelique Kerber 6-4, 6-0; Rossana De Los Rios bt Aravane Rezai 6-4 6-1.

At Budapest:

WTA Budapest GP: Second round: Karolina Sprem bt Tzipora Obziler 6-2, 6-1; Anna-Lena Groenefeld bt Lucie Safarova 6-1, 6-4. First round: Karolina Sprem bt Pauline Parmentier 7-5, 6-2; Klara Zakopalova bt Stiphanie Cohen-Aloro 6-3, 6-2. — Agencies