Fazal, Srinath in second round

Wild card entrants Syed Fazaluddin and Prahlad Srinath kept the Indian flag flying by ousting higher ranked opponents and moving into the second round of the ITF Futures tennis tournament at the South Club in Calcutta on Tuesday.

Local lad Fazaluddin created an upset of sorts by demolishing fourth seed Suwandi Suwandi of Indonesia in straight sets 7-5, 6-3, in a match which lasted more than an hour.

Srinath, the other Davis Cupper, made it to the round of 16 by prevailing over Oliver Freelove of Britain 7-5, 6-2.

Four other Indians in the fray -- Saurav Panja, Mustafa Ghouse, Vijay Kannan and Vishal Uppal -- could not make any progress as they lost their first round matches in straight sets.

Fazaluddin, ranked 677 on the ATP computer, displayed an aggressive brand of tennis to put pressure on his Indonesian rival who was guilty of committing a number of unforced errors.

Suwandi, who is not a hard-hitting player but makes up for it with terrific top spin, preferred the baseline today, thus giving Fazal the chance to approach the net more often.

This advantage coupled with his tremendous service helped the Indian Davis Cupper to clinch the match.

Second seed Dmitri Tomashevich of Uzbekistan was given a scare Marvan Zewar of Egypt before the Uzbek found his bearing to script a hard-fought 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (4).