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Home  » Sports » Indians crash in Australian Open qualifiers

Indians crash in Australian Open qualifiers

By Our Correspondent
January 13, 2006 15:16 IST
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Unlucky Friday struck India at the Australian Open as all the surviving candidates were knocked out in the second round qualifiers at the Melbourne Park.

Rohan Bopanna saved two match-points on his serve but had to concede a 4-6, 6-1, 3-6 defeat against Jean-Christophe Faurel of France.

Though the Indian came back well into the second set, breaking his opponent's serve twice in the set, the 43 unforced errors he committed cost him the match.

While Bopanna stretched the game to almost two hours, Prakash Amirtraj's challenge was blown away in 63 minutes by Todd Widom of the United States.

Amirtraj, who beat a higher-ranked Peter Wessels on Thursday, lost 2-6, 1-6, winning only 30 points in the entire match.

Widom, ranked two places below the Indian, kept the unforced errors to the minimum, three to be precise, to move into the third qualifying round of the Open. He also scored 21 winners, to Amritraj's 12.

In the women's draw, Shikha Uberoi lost 5-7, 2-6 to Russian Anastassia Rodionova in 96 minutes.

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