Srinath in third round

Wild card Prahlad Srinath was the lone Indian to move into the third round of the ITF Futures tennis tournament. Playing with supreme confidence, the Indian Davis Cupper scalped Russian Donavan September 6-3, 6-2 in a second round match at the South Club in Calcutta on Wednesday.

However, the other Indian Davis Cupper, Syed Fazaluddin bowed to 617-ranked Briton Luke Milligan 6-7 (6-8), 3-6 in another second round fixture.

The Indian challenge in the doubles was kept alive by Rohan Bopanna and Vijay Kannan, who, with a combined ranking of 1705, got past the 967-ranked pair of Slovakia's Viktor Bruthans and Czechoslovakia's Josef Nesticky in a tough two-hour encounter at 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-2.

Local boy Fazaluddin, who upset fourth seeded Indonesian Suwandi Suwandi on Tuesday in an opening round encounter, began the first set on a bright note, breaking his opponent twice at the very outset to open up a 3-0 lead.

But Milligan came back resolutely with some athletic passing shots to break Fazal in successive games to level the set 3-3.

Both players retained their serves as the set went to the tie-break where Milligan quickly raced to a 5-1 lead. However, Fazal fought back to make the scoreline 5-5 and then 6-5. But that was the best he could manage. Milligan went into top gear, scoring three points in a row to take the set.

The win acted as an elixir for Milligan who ran way with the second set at 6-3 to advance to the third round.