Fifth seed Ran loses in first round

Vasilis Mazarakis of Greece caused the first upset in the MTNL ATP Challenger tennis tournament, beating fifth seeded Andy Ran of Israel 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the first round at the Circket Club of India, Bombay, on Monday.

None of the Indians, including Davis Cuppers Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, are seeded in the tournament. The Indian players will be seen in action only Tuesday.

Italians Filippo Volabdri and Vincenzo Santopadre are the two top seeds. Vaidm Kustsenko of Uzbekistan and Dennis Van Scheppingen of The Netherlands are the third and fourth seeds respectively.

Leander Paes, after spearheading India to victory over China in the Davis Cup on Sunday, arrived early Monday morning and got on court in the evening to prepare for his opening match against national champion Mustafa Ghouse on Tuesday.

Another Indian Davis Cupper Syed Fazaluddin will also play his first round match against top seeded Italian Filippo Volandri on Tuesday as will Prakash Amritraj, son of tennis ace Vijay. He meets second seeded Italian Vincenzo Santopadre.

First round results:

V Mazarakis (Gre) bt A Ram (Isr) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4; Boris Borgula (Slovakia) bt Dejan Petrovic (Austria) 6-3, 6-3; Jamie Delgado (England) bt Igor Kunitcin (Russia) 6-3, 6-3; Stefeno Galvani (Italy) bt Artem Derepasko (Russia) 3-6, 6-3, 6-0; Marcello Craca (Germany) bt Vitali Chvets (Belarus) 7-6, 6-3; Alexander Shvec (Belarus) bt Daniele Musa (Italy) 7-5, 6-1.

UNI