Former Davis Cupper Mustafa Ghouse and unseeded Rohan Gajjar (both from India) stormed into the singles second round in contrasting styles in the US $6250 MSLTA-ITF Satellite tennis tournament at the Dr Ranade Centre in Mumbai on Monday.
Ghouse, who had won the Mumbai leg last year, needed a second set tie-break to sideline Hayato Furukawa of Japan 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) in a match between two unseeded players which lasted an hour and a half.
Gajjar had a tough time beating Febi Widhiyanto of Indonesia 6-4, 2-6, 6-1.
The match, which lasted almost two hours, saw the plucky Indian, who is unseeded and placed 926th in the ITF ranking against his rival's 760, held his nerve during the crucial stages of the match.
In other first round matches, third seed Vijay Kannan and sixth seed Vinod Sridhar recorded contrasting wins. Kannan rallied well, after dropping the first set 6-7 (4-7), to pip unseeded Sanchai Ratiwatana of Thailand 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-1 in two hours and 15 minutes while Sridhar drubbed compatriot and wild card Aditya Madkekar 6-0, 6-2 in 50 minutes.
Fourth seed Ajay Ramaswamy of India too had good time, beating countryman and wild card Kamala Kannan 6-4, 6-3 in an hour and 30 minutes while Sonchat Ratiwatana of Thailand took just over an hour to subdue unseeded Rishi Sridhar of India 6-2, 6-2.
In the match between Ghouse and Furukawa, the former held the upper hand throughout. Ghouse broke his opponent in the eighth game of the first set before serving out at 6-3.
In the second set, the Japanese gave a good fight as games went with serve, forcing the tie-break. In the tie-breaker, however, the Indian served and returned better. Once he took a 4-2 lead there was no looking back.
He won the set easily, taking the tie-breaker at 7-3.
The Gajjar-Widhiyanto tie was quite interesting as well. The Indian took the first set 6-4 with a break in the third game. The Indonesian fought back well in the second and with breaks in the fourth and eighth games managed to win the second set at 6-2 and level the set scores at one-all.
In the decider, the Indian completely dominated the proceedings, effecting breaks in first, fifth and seventh games while Widhiyanto also coming up with a break in the sixth game, which perhaps was too late.
Results (men's singles) first round: Vinod Sridhar (Ind) bt Aditya Madkekar (Ind) 6-0, 6-2; Rohan Gajjar (Ind) bt Febi Widhiyanto (Ina) 6-4, 2-6, 6-1; Mustafa Ghouse (Ind) bt Hayato Furukawa (Jnp) 6-3, 7-6 (7-3); Ajay Ramaswami (Ind) bt Kamala Kannan (Ind) 6-4, 6-3; Vijay Kannan (Ind) bt Sachi Ratiwatana (Tha) 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-1; Sonchat Ratiwatana (Tha) bt Rishi Sridhar (Ind) 6-2, 6-2.
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