Mustafa, Uppal ousted, Prakash-Rohan pair enter quarterfinals

Chikmagalur, Karnataka, Apr 17 (UNI) Indian ace tennis players Mustafa Ghouse and Vishal Uppal were ousted from the singles event of the USD 25,000 ATP Challenger Championship here today, even as Prakash Amritraj, partnering with his compatriot Rohan Bopanna, entered the quarterfinals in the Doubles section.

While Wild Card entrant Ghouse was shown the door by third seed Lu Yen-Huan of Taipei 6-3, 6-2, Uppal was knocked out from the Championship by Danai Udomchoke of Thailand 6-4, 6-2.

The singles match between Wild Card entrant Kiran Nandakumar and Karan Rastogi (both Indians) scheduled for the afternoon was postponed to tomorrow due to rain.

In the other matches, eighth seed Go Soeda of Japan defeated Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-4), while Adrian Cruciat of Romania beat Mohammed Al Ghareeb of Kuwait 6-3, 6-4.

Phillip King of United States of America defeated Sebastian Rieschick of Germany 7-5, 6-1 in a battle that lasted 75 minutes to enter the second round. The match was held up for about 15 minutes as the players objected to non-availability of drinking water.

Prakash and Bopanna pair, seeded third in this championship, defeated Ukraine pair Oreat Tereshchuk and Bubka Sargai 6-4, 6-2 in just 54 minutes.

(Eds: here pick up suitably from earlier series) UNI MSP RG SKB18525