Bhubaneswar 15-Mar-2010 139
Vijay Avinandan and Santosh Mallik made Orissa tennis proud by eliminating two seeded players in the first round of the Vedant AITA Men’s Ranking Tennis Tournament at Kalinga Stadium here today. City-based BJB College student Avinandan , a qualifier, overcame a disappointing start to topple fifth seed Venkatesh Veera Vasantha (Karnataka) in straight sets, while wild-card receiver Mallik outsted eighth seed Shivraj Singh (WB) also in straight sets. Local teenagers Chinmay Pradhan and Anshu Kumar Bhuyan also advanced to the second round, posting creditable wins over Vandan Mehta (Gujarat) and Mohammad Azhar (WB) respectively.
But Orissa’s experienced campaigners Ajay Nishank and Satirtha suffered defeats at the hands of sixth seed Surana Kamal (Karnataka) and fourth seed Bharat Bharadwaj. Nishank had a chance to upset Kamal, but a line call, which went against him at a crucial juncture, spoiled his valiant effort. Top seed Nitten Kirtane and second seed Ajai Selvaraj (both India No 44), however, registered comfortable wins against Harry Jindal and Farid Alam respectively.
The tournament, which is first of its kind in Orissa, offering a total cash prize of Rs 50,000, was earlier inaugurated by Sports Minister Praveen Chandra Bhajadeo. He announced that four hard courts of the Kalinga Stadium tennis complex would be converted into synthetic courts soon. Kirtane also emphasised on the need of synthetic surface, saying that hard courts are passe in tennis circuits all over.
Results (First round):
Singles: Nitten Kirtane (Mah) bt Harry Jindal (Chd) 6-2,6-0; Maninder Singh (Har) bt Gourav (Chd) 6-4,7-5; Binumani Maniyan (Ker) bt Vishnu Besta Arvind (AP) 6-4,4-6,6-3; Santosh Mallik (Ori) bt Shivraj Singh (WB) 6-2,6-0; Surana Kamal (Kar) bt Ajay Nishank (Ori) 7-5,1-6,6-4; Chinmay Pradhan (Ori) bt Vandan Mehta (Guj) 6-3,6-4; Manjunath Sagar (Kar) bt Sharvil Nawghare (Mah) 6-1,6-2; Parthasarathy Srinivasan (TN) bt Ritesh Dubey (WB) 6-1,6-0; Bharat Bharadwaj (Har) bt Satirtha Patnaik (Ori) 6-2,6-2; Biplab Das (WB) bt Baibhav Das (WB) 6-2,6-2; Surabh Dilip Patil (Mah) bt Vijay Bharadwaj (Har) 6-3,6-4; Rynold Timothy (Ker) bt Santhosh Saudagar (AP) 6-0,6-0; Vijay Avinandan (Ori) bt Venkatesh Veera Vasantha (Kar) 6-4,6-1; Anshu Kumar Bhuyan (Ori) bt Mohammad Azhar (WB) 6-2,6-2; Sanjeeb Kerketta (WB) bt Murtaza Lohani (TN) 6-4,6-0; Ajai Selvaraj (TN) bt Farid Alam (AP) 6-3,6-2.
Doubles: S Manjunath-Surabh Patil bt B Maniyan-R Timothy 6-4,6-4; C Pradhan-V Avinandan bt P Deswal-S Nawghare 7-6 (7-5), 6-2; A Nishank-S Patnaik bt AK Bhuyan-S Mallik 6-1,1-6,10-7; Farid Alam-Biplab Das bt C Bhargav-A Besta 6-2,6-3; S Kerketta-Shivraj Singh bt H Jindal-Baibhav Das 7-6(7-3),6-4.
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PHOTO: Top seed Nitten Kirtane returns the ball during his first round match of the AITA Men’s Ranking Tennis Tournament in Bhubaneswar on March 15, 2010.
