TheSportsCampus

The 2010 tennis season kicked off today with the qualifying rounds in Chennai, Brisbane, Qatar and Auckland. There were 8 Indians in action, all in Chennai, hoping to book a place in Sunday's Second Round.

Prakash Amritraj and Yuki Bhambri grabbed the headlines, and for the right reasons. Both players coasting through to the second round with straight set wins over compatriots Vishnu Vardhan and Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan respectively. Amritraj needed an hour and thirty eight minutes to get the better of Vardhan 7-5, 6-3, while Yuki took an extra couple of minutes and dropped just one game more to beat Virali-Murugesan.

Amritraj was thoroughly tested by the 390th ranked 22-year old Vardhan, the youngster l eft to rue his failure to take advantage of more than 1 of the 6 breakpoints opportunities he had in the contest. Bhambri on the other hand dropped his serve twice in his match with Virali-Murugesan, once in each set. After coming through a tight first set, Bhambri struggled to close out the second set, despite dominating for most of the match.

It was an otherwise disappointing day for the remaining Indians in the draw, and the one Pakistani. 21-year old Sanam Singh, ranked 789 in the world, took a set off 4th seed Marsel Ilhan of Turkey before falling 6-2 in the third. 25-year old Rohan Gajjar too put up a bit of a fight against 6th seed Peter Polansky pushing him to a second set tiebreak, while Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy and Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash both fell rather tamely. Pakistan doubles specialist Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi but up brave resistance before succumbing to 20-year old Daniel Young, nine years Qureshi's junior, in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.

Prakash takes on Polansky, while Yuki will be thoroughly tested by Ukraine's Illya Marchenko, the top seed in the qualifying rounds, ranked at 120 in the world.

Select Qualifying Round 1 Results:

P Amritraj (IND) d V Vardhan (IND) 7-5,6-3
M Ilhan (TUR) d [WC] S Singh (IND) 7-5,3-6,6-2
P Polansky (CAN) d R Gajjar (IND) 6-3,7-6 (8)
Y Bhambri (IND) d R Virali-Murugesan (IND) 7-5,6-4
N Okun (ISR) d [WC] S Narayanaswamy (IND) 6-2,6-3
R de Voest (RSA) d G Bastl (SUI) 6-2,7-5
J Minar (CZE) d [WC] M Jayaprakash (IND) 6-4,6-2
D Young (USA) d A Qureshi (PAK) 6-4,6-4

Qualifying Round 2

P Amritraj (IND) vs P Polansky (CAN)
I Marchenko (UKR) vs Y Bhambri (IND)
D Brown (JAM) vs J Minar (CZE)
L Sorensen (IRL) vs D Young (USA)
Poerschke (GER) vs R de Voest (RSA)
Okun (ISR) vs T Ito (JPN)
R Ghedin (ITA) vs T Yang (TPE)
M Ilhan (TUR) vs J Ward (GBR)

File Photograph: Venetian Macao Tennis Showdown