Indian quatret makes first round exit from Delhi Challenger

New Delhi, Nov 26 (UNI) It was a poor start for India in the ONGC ATP Challenger tennis tournament, as Tushar Liberhan, Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Sunil Kumar Sipaeya and Navdeep Singh, all made first round exits from the singles category of the 50,000 dollar hard court event here today.

In his opening match, qualifier Tushar bowed down to Frenchman Sebastien de Chaunac in a hard fought three setter 2-6, 6-4. 1-6, while Prajnesh, who got a wildcard here, was defeated in straight sets 6-7, 4-6 by Russian Pavel Chekov.

Another qualifier Sunil Kumar Sipaeya lost 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 to wildcard entrant Cecil Mamit of Philipinnes, but only after putting up a brave resistance.

Later, Sung An Jae of South Korea added more salt to India's wound when he thrashed another wildcard entrant Navdeep Singh 6-3, 6-3.

With the quatret's ouster, India's all hopes now rests on the young trio of Rohan Bopanna, Karan Rastogi and Harsh Mankad, who earned the third wildcard for India in this tournament.

Meanwhile, top seed Ivo Minar of Czech Republic brushed aside Mongolian Guillaume Couillard's challenge 6-4, 6-4 enroute to the next round, while third seed Kristian Pless of Denmark had a disappointing outing as he had to retire mid-way from the tie against German Dieter Kindlmann because of an injury.

UNI