Punna causes an upset

Indian wild cards Vishal Punna and Karan Rastogi had a field day, winning their first round men's singles matches in the $10,000 MSLTA-ITF Futures men's tennis tournament at the Dr Ranade Centre in Mumbai on Monday.

Punna caused the first major upset of the tournament when he pipped fourth seed Toshihide Matsui of Japan 7-6(7-4), 6-4 in an hour and 15 minutes while local lad Rastogi crushed lucky loser Mohammed Mohanevnia of Iran 6-1, 6-0 in a totally one-sided 40-minute encounter.

Other Indians -- seventh seed Mustafa Ghouse and unseeded Ajay Ramaswami -- also tasted success in their first round matches.

Ghouse, playing solidly from the baseline sidelined unseeded Robert Haybittel of Australia, winning 6-4, 6-2 while Ramaswami subdued compatriot and the third wild card in the fray, Rishi Behl, winning 6-2, 7-5 in an hour and 40 minutes.

In the fifth and last singles match of the day, eighth seed Michael Ouvarov of Great Britain defeated unseeded Si Yew-Ming of Malaysia 6-4, 6-3 in an hour and 20 minutes.

Punna had the upper hand against his Japanese rival all most throughout the match. Though games went with serves in the first set, the Indian took command once he went 5-3 ahead in the tie-break before wrapping it at 7-4.

The second set saw the Japanese fight back well till the ninth game where he lost his serve on 15-40 after serving a double fault and then failing to reach a overhead lob.

Punna, who served hard and deep throughout the match, did not lose his concentration and served out the match at 6-4.

Rastogi outplayed his Iranian rival in all departments of the game. The Indian's domination was so total that his rival managed to win just one game throughout the match when he held his own serve in the fourth game of the first set after trailing 0-3.

The other seeded players, including the two top seeds, and Davis Cuppers Rohan Bopanna and Harsh Mankad will be seen in action tomorrow.

The other seeded players in the draw of 32 are third seed and the winner of the last two Futures title in India, Aisam Qureshi of Pakistan, fourth seed Sunil Kumar Sipaeya of India and Melvyn Op Der Heijde of the Netherlands.

In the doubles, the Indo-Pak combination of Ghouse and Qureshi are the top seeds followed by the Indian duo Ramaswami and Sipaeya, Kamala Kannan and Manoj Mahadevan of India and Heijde and Jasper Smit of the Netherlands.

Results (singles first round): Mustafa Ghouse (Ind) bt Robert Haybittel (Aus) 6-4, 6-2; Karan Rastogi (Ind) bt Mohammed Mohazevnia (Ira) 6-1, 6-0; Vishal Punna (Ind) bt Toshihide Matsui (Jpn) 7-6(7-4), 6-4; Ajay Ramaswami (Ind) bt Rishi Behl (Ind) 6-2, 7-5; Michael Ouvarov (GBR) bt Si Yew-Ming (Mal) 6-4, 6-3.

Doubles (first round): Somdev Dev Varman/ Karan Rastogi (Ind) bt Aditya Madkekar/ Anjan Viplav (Ind) 6-3, 6-1.