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Three seeds fail to sprout

Top seeded Prahlad Srinath of India and second seed Artem Derepasko of Russia registered straight set victories to sail into the quarter-finals of the MTNL Indian Satellite Masters tennis tournament in New Delhi today.

Srinath, who won the Bangalore and Delhi legs, had little difficulty in beating countryman Sandeep Kiratne 6-3, 6-0, while Derepasko quelled the challenge of Vijay Kannan, winning 6-4, 6-4.

Other seeds advancing to the last eight stage were third-seeded Syed Fazaluddin, fourth-seeded Harsh Mankad and sixth-seeded Anton Kokurin (Uzbekistan).

Fazaluddin moved past Australian Ashley Ford, who yesterday won a marathon three-hour match, to win 6-4, 7-5. Harsh ousted compatriot Vishal Uppal 6-4, 7-6, while Kokurin beat fellow-countryman Dimitri Mazur 6-4, 7-6(5).

But while the fancied players went through rather easily, three seeds - fifth seed Vinod Sridhar, seventh-seeded Le Minh (USA) and eighth-seeded Shivashankar Kambargimath (India) - fell by the wayside, losing their second round matches.

Vinod lost a three set battle to unseeded fellow-Indian Vasudeva Reddy. After losing the first set (2-6), Reddy came back strongly to win the next two and the match at 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Le, meanwhile, lost to Nitin Kirtane 3-6, 4-6. The seventh seed seemed to have lost his rhythm and was never into the match.

Kambargimath, the last seed to bow out, meanwhile conceded his second round match due to health problems. After winning the first set 7-6 (3) in a tie-break, he was trailing 2-5 in the second when he retired.

In the quarter-finals tomorrow, Srinath clashes with Nitin Kirtane, while Derepasko meets Laad. In other matches, Fazaluddin runs into the Uzbeki Kokurin, while Mankad battles Reddy.

The doubles semi-finals will be played tomorrow.

Agencies