Fazaluddin's 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-1 win earned him precious eight points but will have the second-seeded Australian Peter Tramacchi to contend with in the round of 16. He may have to worry about it in another couple of days time, but the important fact is that he managed to carry his confidence, gained on the clay courts of Beppe Croce Club in Genoa, into this match as well.

However, up-and-coming Vijay Kannan, fresh from his rather successful stint in the South East Asian ITF Junior circuit, joined Kirtane among first round losers, going down to France's Anthony Dupuis 4-6, 2-6, in his firstmatch at the Challenger level.

Of late, Sandeep Kirtane has been losing a lot of three setters, the latest one being the final round of qualifying at the Gold Flake Open, where after leading 4-2 in the final set, went on to lose the match. A predominant baseliner, he found Fazaluddin's hustling tactics a bit too much to handle. He was coming in at almost every point and the short-statured Puneite found it difficult to control the game from the back of the court. To add to his woes, was the uneven bounce.

With no first serves and lack of match sharpness becoming evident after every passing game, he not only failed to grab the break points that came his way, but gave away far too many free points. ``I played very loose and was struggling to find my rhythm,'' Kirtane said.

Fazaluddin, playing with a slightly sore back, won some good points at the net while Kirtane missed a couple of easy volleys. After the first set loss, the US-based Fazaluddin raised his game a bit and with a break in the second game ofthe second set, he was well into the match. The decider was a wash-out with Kirtane's game going to pieces. ``I think I was in control of the match after the first set," Fazaluddin said.

Kirtane, meanwhile, made it to the main draw of doubles when he and Vishal Uppal defeated Harsh Mankad and Mustafa Ghouse in the final round of qualifying.

For Kirtane, however, it will be a very hard grind to get his rankings up from a poor 1330 to somewhere more respectable. At one point of time, he was ranked in the 500s but a series of injuries stopped him from defending his points.

He is now planning to play the US Futures tournaments beginning from May 11. A eight-week Futures leg of $15,000 each, he will have to qualify for the 64-player main draw. The qualifying is a 128-player draw, which means he has to win atleast six matches to win a point, which is almost like winning a tournament!

Despite his defeat, Vijay Kannan, playing his last year in the juniors, felt it was a good experience, playing in theChallenger. ``I just couldn't return well,'' he said.

He is now ranked 46 in the ITF singles junior rankings and is placed in the top 60 in doubles. This would help him gain a direct entry into both junior Wimbledon and French Open. He made 65 points in the three tournaments played in Singapore (round of 16 singles and doubles quarters), Indonesia (singles semifinals and doubles finalist) and in Bangkok (singles round of 16 and doubles semifinals).

RESULTS (FIRST ROUND):

Anthony Dupuis (Fra) b Vijay Kannan (Ind) 6-4, 6-2; Eyal Ran (Isr) b Jiri Vanek (Cze) 6-3, 6-2; David Nainkin (RSA) b Massimo Ardinghi (Ita) 7-6 (3), 6-2; Jan Krejci (Cze) b David Miketa (Cze) 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-1; Syed Fazaluddin (Ind) b Sandeep Kirtane (Ind) 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-1; Peter Tramacchi (Aus) b Nicolas Coutelot (Fra) 7-6 (3), 6-7 (5), 6-4.

DOUBLES (first round):

Thierry Guardiola (Fra)/ Jan Krejci (Cze) b Syed Fazaluddin/ Prahlad Srinath (Ind) 6-3, 6-3;

(FINAL ROUND QUALIFYING):

Sandeep Kirtane/ VishalUppal (Ind) b Harsh Mankad/ Mustafa Ghouse (Ind) 6-2, 6-3.