Prakash Amritraj enters second round

Chikmagalur, Karnataka, Apr 18 (UNI) Davis Cupper Prakash Amritraj today stormed into the second round of the 25,000 dollars ATP Challenger Championship here even as his compatriots wild card entrants Navdeep Singh and Kiran Nandkumar were ousted.

Top seed Hyung-Taik Lee of Korea, fourth seed Lukaz Kubot of Poland and fifth seeded Czech Paval Snobel also entered the second round winning their respective matches.

Prakash, ranked 229 in the world ranking, did not find much difficulty in defeating Darko Henry Adjei of Ghana 6-3, 6-2.

Adjei paid dearly for his erratic shots and Prakash taking full advantage of his mistakes, changed his game plan and played a cool game to wrap up the match in 131 minutes. Prakash served four aces, while Adjei committed more than four double faults in the game.

Karan Rastogi had it easy against wild card entrant Kiran Nandkumar 6-3, 6-2 in the match that lasted 62 minutes.

Seeded players, including Lee, Kubot and Snobel, had easy run into the second round.

For Lee, qualifier Sergei Bubka of Ukraine was not a match and he knocked the 19-year-old Ukrainian out of the game in just 60 minutes.

Kubot of Poland defeated Luke Bourgeois of Australia 6-3, 6-1, while Snobel defeated Herbert Wiltsching of Austria in just 65 minutes.

Navdeep Singh was shown the door by Vlaski Aleksandar of Serbia Montenegro 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 in the match that lasted for 136 minutes.

Though Singh, through his superb ground shots, succeeded in stretching the first set to a tie-breaker, he could not stand before left-hander Aleksandar's volley of ground shots.

In the second set, Aleksandar did not find much fight from the Indian, though he gave away three points before winning the match.

In another match, Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland defeated Oreal Tereshchuk of Ukraine 6-1, 7-5. In the match that lasted for 77 minutes, Chiudinelli easily won the first set with a margin of five games (6-1). However, Tereshchuk was not ready to surrender meekly and made Marco to sweat it out by earning five points.

However, Chiudinelli with his superb backhand strokes clinched the set and wrapped up the match (7-5).

Results: (first round) Singles: Aleksandar Vlaski (SCG) bt Navdeep Singh (Ind) 7-6 (3), 6-3; Marco Chiudinelli (SUI) bt Q Corest Tereshchuk (UKR) 6-1, 7-5; Laurent Recouderc (FRA) bt Viktor Troicki (SCG) 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (2); Toshihide Matsui (JPN) bt Victor Bruthans (SVK) 7-6 (7-2), 6-4; S1 Hyung Taik Lee (Kor) bt Q Sergei Subka (UKR) 6-4, 6-4; S4 Lukaz Kubot (POL) bt Luke Bourgeois (Aus) 6-3, 6-1; S6 Prakash Amritraj bt Darko Henry Adjei (Gha) 6-3, 6-2; Pavel Snobel (CZE) bt Herbert Wiltschnic (Aut) 6-4, 6-1: Jan Masik (CZE) bt Jesse Huta Gallung (Ned) 7-6 (7-5), 6-3: Karan Rastogi bt Kiran Nand Kumar 6-3, 6-2.

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