Spain's Marc Fornell-Mestres performs a dual job on the circuit. The 29-year-old coaches and plays at the same time. Here, an 18-year-old Mike Vermeer of Luxembourg is under his wings.
Though being a tad slow and erratic at times, the Spaniard, seeded fifth, still managed to script a 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 win over India's Kaza Vinayak Sharma to advance to the second round of the KCG Verghese memorial ITF men's Futures tennis tournament at the Gandhi Nagar Club here on Monday.
India's V.M. Ranjeet, seeded seventh, made light work of Jeong Suk-Young of Korea to win 6-3, 6-1. Ranjeet's counter-part Vijay Sundar Prashanth didn't have an easy time out in the middle. Vijay, unseeded here, overcame a stiff challenge from Mark-Alexander Kepler of Germany 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-0 in two hours and five minutes.
Marc made optimum use of Kaza's unforced errors even as the fifth seed pounded winners from the baseline, making the Indian look a mere spectator in the first set. After the 6-0 drubbing in the opening set, Vinayak recovered from the shock and kept Marc on tenterhooks with an attacking baseline game.
In the third and deciding set, Marc took a 4-2 lead. However, he was in a spot of bother in the seventh game. Down 0-40 on his serve, Marc fought his way to deuce and won the last point on a lucky net chord.
Thereafter, Kaza simply melted. “It's so humid out here. Moreover, I am coaching and playing; it's not easy,” said Marc, who gave a walkover in the semifinals to Yuki Bhambri in the Chandigarh leg to be with his ward for the qualifying round in the subsequent leg at Noida.
Meanwhile, the organisers would do well to put up a gallery for the spectators, who are finding it difficult to watch the matches under very humid conditions.
The results (First round, Indians unless otherwise mentioned) :
Singles : Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Mark-Alexander Kepler (Ger) 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-0; Vijay Kannan bt Perakiat Siriluethaiwattana (Tha) 6-4, 6-1; Marc Fornell-Mestres (Esp) bt Kaza Vinayak Sharma 6-0, 4-6, 6-3; V.M. Ranjeet bt Jeong Suk-Young (Kor) 6-3, 6-1.
Doubles : Marc Fornell-Mestres (Esp) / Mike Vermeer (Lux) bt Francois Chatelle / Julien Dubail (Bel) 6-2, 6-4; Elbert Sie (Ina) / P. Siriluethaiwattana (Tha) bt Vijay Kannan / Ajai Selvaraj 7-6(8), 6-0; Jae-Sung An / Young-Jun Kim (Kor) bt S. Narayanaswamy / P. Vignesh 6-2, 6-3.
Mark-Alexander Kepler Ger) / Amrit Narasimhan (USA) bt Bharatram Balajee / Bharath Srinivasan Parthasarathy 4-6, 6-3, 10-6 (super tiebreak); Vijayant Malik / Kaza Vinayak Sharma bt Suresh Krishna / Ronak Manuja 6-4, 6-2; Arjun Kadhe / Jeson Patrombon (Phi) 6-4, 3-6(7); Junn Mitsuhashi (Jpn) / Christopher Rungkat (Ina) bt Elwin Antony / Neeraj Elangovan 6-2, 6-1.
