Paradorn crashes out, Santoro braves injury, enters quarters

Chennai, Jan 4 (UNI) In one of the shortest matches of the tourney, unseeded Austrian Stefan Koubek entered the Chennai Open ATP Tennis quarters with an upset win over Asian star and seventh seed Paradorn Srichaphan at centre court in SAF Games stadium here this evening.

In a totally one-sided match lasting just 47 minutes, the 80th ranked Austrian ran away with an easy 6-1, 6-2 win over 2003 champion and crowd favourite from Thailand, to join France's Fabrice Santoro in the last eight. Sixth seed Santoro defeated Bjorn Phau of Germany 6-2, 6-4 in the other pre-quarterfinal contest.

Srichaphan became the second seeded player to bow out of this year's edition after second seeded David Nalbandian was toppled by Pless Kristian of Denmark in the first round.

Today's defeat was the earliest exit by Srichaphan after his quarterfinal loss to Kristof Vliegen of Belgium last year. The Thai, playing here for the sixth successive year, was a finalist for four years from 2002 and finished runner-up in 2002, 2004 and 2005.

An elated Stephan Koubek later said 'It turned out to be pretty easy for me as he (Paradorn) has had pain in his wrist. I played some solid good tennis and I am happy to be in the last eight'.

Aiming to finish in the top 50 in 2007, Koubek said it was quite tough to come back after the doping scandal in 2005 and a injury that kept him out of action. ''The semifinal finish in Mumbai last year has helped me to finish in the top 100 in 2006,'' he said.

Srichaphan said, ''it's quite tough playing against Koubek who has beaten me earlier. He hit too deep and there is some pain in the wrist. I thought I will be ready for Chennai Open as there was two weeks gap between Asian Games and this. That's why I came here. But there is little bit pain and I cannot hit too hard. It's not that bad that I cannot hold my racquet. I just did not want to risk further, especially ahead of the Australian Open just two weeks away.'' Plagued with a wrist injury that kept him out of the singles in Doha Asian Games, Srichaphan perhaps aggravated it in his first round contest. His serves lacked verve and ground strokes lacked direction.

He had five minute medical time soon after the first set. But it did not alter the outcome as the left-handed Austrian made most of the situation, pounding winners from the baseline.

The first set was over in just 16 minutes as Koubek broke his more fancied rival in the fourth and sixth games.

The Thai also had a word with the Chair umpire midway during the second set and just completed the formalities. The pain was so much that he could not have full swing of his racquet, leading to frequent unforced errors. Capitalising on it Koubek just kept the ball in play and thrived on Srichaphan's errors to emerge unscathed.

Srichaphan lost serve in the opening game of the second set and dropped it again in the seventh to crash out of contention.

In the outside courts, sixth seeded Frenchman Fabrice Santoro, who was suffering from back spasm that forced him to pull out of doubles, literally put his injury behind, to score a 6-4, 6-2 win over Bjorn Phau of Germany to enter the quarterfinals.

After the close first set, the 52nd ranked Frenchman hit some sterling winners on either flank to shut his young German rival out of contention.

UNI