Ramaswami-Sipaeya win ITF doubles title

Ajay Ramaswami and Sunil Kumar Sipaeya won their fourth title by lifting the doubles crown in the $10,000 ONGC ITF Futures men's tennis tournament at the Doon School complex in Dehra Dun on Saturday.

Second seeded Ramaswami and Sipaeya defeated top seeds and Asian Games bronze medallists Mustafa Ghouse and Vishal Uppal 6-2, 6-1 to collect $630 in prize-money and 12 ATP points.

Ghouse and Uppal were playing the final an hour after beating Kamala Kannan and Manoj Mahadevan 7-6(7/4), 7-6(8/6) in the semi-final, which was suspended midway overnight due to fading light. The duo earned a purse of $330 and eight ATP points.

Ramaswami and Sipaeya had won a similar title last week in Thailand. Their two other titles came in Tunisia earlier this year and in Chandigarh last year.

Ramaswami, in particular, was ecstatic after the triumph as it was his 10th career title -- he had won three partnering Prahlad Srinath, two with Harsh Mankad and one with today's loser Ghouse before.

In singles play, the Indian challenge in the tournament came to an end with the ouster of Punna Vishal by Briton Nicky Crawley, who booked a berth in the final with the 4-6, 6-0, 6-4 win.

But the tournament could have a Pakistani winner with Aisam ul-Haq Qureshi booking the other final berth after a 6-4, 6-4 dismantling of Uzbekistan's Dmitry Mazur in the other semi-final.

The 23-year old Qureshi, even with his slump in rankings due to an injury forced lay-off, is about 500 places above Crawley, 1050 on the ATP computer.

And if his form today against Mazur is any indication, the finale should be a Sunday breakfast show for Qureshi.

By all counts, the Qureshi-Mazur tie should have been the summit clash since their latest rankings masked the forced lay-off the two players had taken earlier this year.

The former was off the circuit for five months after undergoing surgery to cure his appendicitis while a combination of injury and mandatory army service kept the latter away from action for one year.

Qureshi, who was ranked as high as 207 two years ago, had an edge over his opponent going into the match. He had beaten Mazur all the three times he had played him before and was confident of going through.

"I had a tough match in the opening round (against Melvyn Op Der Heijder), and only in the quarterfinal (against qualifier Tushar Liberhan) I was playing someone I had not known. Otherwise I had played all the players before and so that gave me an edge," Qureshi said.

He broke Mazur early in the third game and held that advantage to take the first set. It was a consistent baseline duel between two talented players and 13 games since Qureshi's break went on serve.

In the seventh game of the second set, two backhand winners gave Qureshi double breakpoint. Mazur sensed danger and tried to salvage the situation by increasing his power of returns but the former played a reflex lob to perfection to beat his on-rushing rival to win the break.

The fact that two qualifiers were playing in the other semifinal was a commentary on the event that had been affected severely by inclement weather at the start.

The pull out of two seeds in the bottom half might have been a factor but there could be no denying Vishal and Crawley their credit for playing their heart out.

The Indian blew his chances of reaching his first final after Crawley handed him the first set with three double faults in the last game.

Vishal's game fell apart in the second when he failed to win a game. His backhand was too weak -- rather, he did not have one -- and that reduced his chances drastically when he went up to the net. Almost every time Crawley passed him with ease.

But from the moment he saved two break-points in the first game of the decider when he fired five aces, Vishal's game was back on the rails.

In fact, he served 13 aces for the match and also tightened his net play to put the pressure back on Crawley.

But a couple of return winners gave two break points for the Briton who converted the second with another bootlace return in the ninth game.

Vishal then saved two match-points but Crawley fired an ace and played a controlled volley to seal the game.