Mahadevan goes down fighting

Our Correspondent

Manoj Mahadevan, the only surviving Indian, bowed out of the Satellite Masters tennis tournament, in Bombay, on Tuesday. However, he went down with guns blazing, losing to eighth seeded Russian Michail Elgin 6-7, 7-5, 6-3 after battling for a little over two hours.

Despite having the lowest ranking among the six Indians -- five lost on Monday -- who managed to get an entry into the tournament because of the withdrawal of foreign players, Mahadevan produced an encouraging display. On Monday, he got the better of David Sherwood of England in the first round. On Tuesday, he won the first set via the tie-breaker, during which he conceded just one point, and looked good enough to create an upset as he battled the Russian in the second set. But it seemed the heat got to him as he slackened in the latter stages of the set when he conceded a break to give Elgin the set at 7-5.

The third set saw Mahadevan virtually run out of steam as the Russian stepped up the pace and broke twice to take the set and match.

In a mild upset, fifth seeds Tomas Cakl of the Czech Republic was shocked by Dutchman Fred Hemmes in straight sets, 2-6, 6-7.

For top seed Oliver Maranch of Austria, who is looking to round off his winning streak, following his triumphs in all the three legs of the Satellite tournaments, it was a routine victory as he demolished Uzbekistan's Anton Kokurin 6-3, 6-4 to make it to the last eight stage.

Also read: Mahadevan is sole survivor