Paes delights but others lose out

Paes delights but others lose out
Shailendra Awasthi

Mumbai, February 13: Settling into homely conditions within a couple of days, defending champion Leander Paes breezed past National grass court champion Mustafa Ghouse 6-0, 6-1 in little over an hour to enter the second round of the $³50,000 MTNL ATP Challenger Tennis Tournament at the Cricket Club of India courts on Tuesday.

But unlike Paes, who had no problems in acclimatising to the Mumbai sun after his return from the frozen China town of Lang Fang where he helped India score a creditable win in the Asia Oceana Group I Davis Cup tie, it turned out to be a poor day for other Indians with Davis Cuppers Mahesh Bhupathi and Syed Fazaluddin bowing out tamely. Future hope Prakash Amritraj, son of illustrious father Vijay, failed to make any impression against second seed Italian Vincenzo Santopadre going down 4-6, 1-6.

Paes was at his flawless best against Ghouse. He not only settled quicky into his elements but serve warning to other aspirants as he did not allow Ghouse to even realise what is going on in the first set, clinching it without dropping a game within 35 minutes.

Ghouse tried to charge to the nets initially in the first set but soon realised that he was up against a hopeless task. With lightenig fast serves and vollies to a perfection, Paes broke Ghouse in the second, fourth and the sixth game. Ghouse put up some resistance in the fifth game extending it to five deuces before a cracking serve from Paes found him at sea.

Paes continued his complete domination in the second set. Apart from couple of objecting a line calls' Paes was calm throughout. He broke Ghouse in the second and sixth game to take the steam out of him, clinching the set in just 23 minutes.

``I'm fairly satisfied with my play.'' said an elated Paes. When asked how he felt coming from severe cold to humid conditions on home soil, Paes said ``Well, I' have to adjust to conditions as I want to defend my title and gain some valuable points.''

Accepting defeat admitting that Paes was simply at his best. ``I failed to find my rhythm'' said Ghouse.

Bhupathi too found the going tough against forth seeded Scheppingen losing the tie in just 45 minutes. Though he started off promisingly breaking his opponent in the very first game, Bhupathi failed to hold his serve in the next dropping a shot too long and then banging another into the net. Bhupathi lost his serve in the sixth to coceed the set 6-3 in just 25 minutes.

Bhupathi's lacklustre performance continued in the second set as he lost his serves in the first game itself and losing it again in the 5th to go down tamely in within 20 minutes.

Prakash Amritraj failed to light up his game finding second seed Italian Santopadre too hot to handle. Once the Italian broke him in the second game of the first set, Prakash never recoverd throughout the match.

Syed Fazaluddin's never seemed recovering from bad run since losing his both the singles against China. He proved a easy meat for his top seed Italian opponent Filippo Volandri, who wrapped-up the match in just one hour.

Third seed Vadim Kutsenko of Uzbekistan rallied magnificently, after dropping the first set 3-6, to pip Denis Golovanov of Russia 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in two hours while qualifier Branislav Sekac of Slovakia ousted Aisam Qureshi of Pakistan 6-3, 7-5 in one hour 45 minutes in other first round matches.

Results (seedings in prefix):
Singles (Ist round): Nir Welgreen (Isr) bt 7- Filippo Messori (Ita) 6-1, 6-2; Frantisek Cermak bt 8- Oleg Ogorodov (Uzb) 6-1, 6-4; Leander Paes (Ind) bt Mustafa Ghouse (Ind) 6-0, 6-1; 1- Filippo Volandri (Ita) bt Syed Fazaluddin (Ind) 7-5, 6-4; 2- Vincenzo Santopadre (Ita) bt Prakash Amritraj (Ind) 6-4, 6-1; Branislav Sekac (Svk) bt Aisam Qureshi (Pak) 6-3, 7-5; 4- Dennis Van Scheppingen (Ned) bt Mahesh Bhupathi (Ind) 6-3, 6-2.
Doubles: F Cermak (Cze)/ O Fukarek (Cze) bt D Golovanov (Rus)/ N Wellgreen (Isr) 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.