Ashutosh keeps India flag going

Wed, May 14 12:45 AM

The Indian challenge got a heavy dent as Prakash Amritraj, Rohan Bopanna and Harsh Mankad failed to advance to the second round of the singles category in the SAIL Cup, a part of the ATP Challenger series, here on Tuesday. Amritraj (India) was beaten comprehensively by seventh seed Brendan Evans (USA) in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 as the Indian player failed to leave any impression in a completely one-sided encounter.

Evans, who is ranked 198th in the world, dominated the match from the beginning and came out with an emphatic victory. Rohan Bopanna, who was also eliminated from the doubles category on Monday, pulled out of the tournament due to a knee injury.

Though the Indian supporters had something to cheer for as Ashutosh Singh came out victorious in a three set marathon match 6-3, 6-7(8-6), 7-6(8-6) that lasted a little less than in three hours, against Alexandre Kudryavtsav (Russia). Ashutosh won the first set easily, as the Russian bounced back in the second set taking it into a tiebreak.

Singh then missed out two match points in the tiebreak of the second set and the match went into the third set. The Russian then had some big serves in the final set as both the players held their serves to take the match into another tiebreak.

Alexandre then raced to a 6-4 lead in the tiebreak and had two match points. Ashutosh made a terrific comeback to make it 6-6 as Alexandre slipped on the penultimate point.

In another match, Harsh Mankad (India) was defeated in straight sets 6-7(7-5), 4-6 by Thomas Oger (France). Mankad got the match underway with the best way as he broke Oger's serve in the first game.

The French player then broke back in the second game and then went on to win the first set by winning the tiebreak. In the second set Oger dominated and took a 4-1 lead.

Harsh then made a comeback to get right back on serve and took the score to 4-4. The Frenchmen then held his serve and then played a magnificent cross-court pass to earn two match points and went on to win the match after Mankad made a double fault.

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