The Greek took some sheen off a closely contested encounter with appalling behaviour that cost him a point for code violation and finally the match itself.

Kirtane, though, was unruffled throughout the encounter and his victory, when it came after 106 minutes, was enthusiastically applauded by the spectators.

The first set was the best period of the match. Games went with serve, though Karagiannis served five double faults. The Greek player took the tie-break 8-6.

However, Kirtane had gauged everything that Karagiannis could offer and worked out a game plan. In this, he was helped by Kargiannis serving a double fault on deuce in the second game. He broke him in that game and raced to a 3-0 lead.

Kargiannis, by now, had become increasingly frustrated and he took a part of iton the chair umpire. He lost the second set 2-6 and asked the court to be watered. He yelled at the ITF Supervisor and claimed that the chair umpire did not know English.

Kirtane broke his opponent in the fourth game, and followed it up by holding serving. Karagiannis went to pieces after that. In the ninth game, he contested a second serve from Kirtane and when the chair umpire pointed out the chalk mark, the Greek called him a moron. The latter did not distinguish himself either by entering into an argument with the player.

The ITF Supervisor, Luigi Brambilla, arrived at the court and penalised the player for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Kirtane won the match 6-7 (8-6), 6-2, 6-3 and earned the right to take on second seeded Federico Rovai of Sweden.

Sandeep's cousin Nitin Kirtane needed 75 minutes to beat qualifier Mike Boulding of Britain 6-3, 6-2.

Results:

Singles: Harsh Mankad (Ind) bt Praveen Kumar (Ind) 7-5, 6-4; Nitin Kirtane (Ind) bt Mike Boulding (Britain) 6-3, 6-2; Marian Leysek(Slo) bt Gerard Fahlke (Ger) 6-3, 6-4; Sandeep Kirtane (Ind) bt Niko Karagiannis (Greece) 6-7 (8-6), 6-2, 6-3; Johan Hede (Swe) bt Ondrej Chvapil (Czech) 6-1, 6-2; Federico Rovai (Swe) bt Sanzaruz Zaman (Ind) 6-4, 6-0; Danai Udomchoke (Thai) bt Vijendra Laad (Ind) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2; Vinod Sridhar (Ind) bt Mustafa Ghouse (Ind) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

Doubles: Vijay Kannan/Harsh Mankad bt Vishal Gupta/Praveen Kumar 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3); Sandeep Kirtane/Nitin Kirtane bt Ondrej Chvapil/Marian Leysek 1-6, 6-2, 6-3.