Greul too good for Sipaeya

Germany's Simon Greul poured cold water on Indian hopes, thrashing Sunil Kumar Sipaeya 6-2, 6-2 to claim his successive US $15,000 ITF Futures men's singles title in Delhi on Saturday.

The cheers of home fans, mostly school kids who had filled the stands on a chilly Saturday, were dampened as much by the icy weather as Sipaeya's below par performance at the DLTA Complex.

In contrast was Greul's tunnel-visioned focus as he served and out-slugged the Indian sixth seed in just 55 minutes to take the fifth title of his career.

The second seeded German, who had won the title in the Mumbai leg last week, pocked 18 ATP points and $1950 in prize-money.

Greul had ranked as high as 148 in June 2003 before an injury forced him out of action for five months and his ranking came down.

The highest prize-money title he had won was a $55,000 event on clay back home that year but he also has a $50,000 crown, won on hard courts to back his claims of all-round skills.

Greul had also tested his abilities on the Grand Slam stage and reached the final qualifying round of the Australian Open in 2002.

Naturally, the gulf in standards was too much to bridge for Sipaeya. Also, having won the Satellite Masters here last year, Greul knew the Indian's game very well.

The only time the 22-year-old Indian looked like getting the better of the German was in the very first game when he forced three break points.

Greul saved two of them with some controlled shots up the net and the chair umpire overruled a line call on Sipaeya's forehand in his favour on the third.

Once he held serve, Greul shut the door for Sipaeya. He got his big serves working, there were five aces in all, but the number seemed a bit high for a match of such short duration.

He concentrated his attack on Sipaeya's backhand and the Chandigarh player disappointingly lacked plan B for such a big match.

There were occasions when Sipaeya was able to produce his brilliant forehands, but Gruel had the upper hand throughout. After being broken in the fourth game of the first set, the youngster lost it psychologically when he made three unforced errors in a row to lose the sixth game and the set.

It was a disappointing result for Sipaeya, who announced his arrival on the tennis scene as a 16-year old when he won the nationals in 1999 and later the Asian Junior Championships in 2002.

He won his first title in a $10,000 event at the same venue the same year but except for his second win in Tunisia in 2003 it has been a long dry spell since then.