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July 3, 2001

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Sunil Kumar shocks eighth seed

Shailesh Soni

Junior India tennis star Sunil Kumar Sipaeya moved into the third round of the boys' singles at Wimbledon, shocking Florian Mayer of Germany 7-5, 7-5 in the second round match.

For the unseeded Sunil, it was indeed a huge upset as Mayer was seeded eighth in the tournament.

It was excpected to be a tough match for Sunil, who is ranked 82, but the Indian made it look simple by winning in straight sets.

Sunil won the first set at 7-5. In the second set, he was down one break at 4-5, but he returned the break in the tenth game to level scores at 5-5. The Indian again broke the German in the 12th game to take the match.

He now will face Ken Skupski of Great Britain in the third round. Skupski also created a huge upset, defeating ninth seed Robin Soderling of Sweden 6-4, 6-7(5-7), 6-3.

Skupski is a wild card entrant in the tournament. He is 18 years, hails from Liverpool and is ranked 343 on the ITF listing. He has hardly played more than ten junior events in his career. He seems to be a grasscourter who has not done much on other surfaces. He had four top-50 wins in the last three weeks (Ryan Henry and Mathew Emery of US, Marcus Egger of Austria and now the 9th seed Robin Doderling of Sweden).

It will an interesting match between the two unknown gaint killers as Sunil also has not had any big junior grasscourt results to talk about as compared to Skupski.

The win gives Sunil 50 big points, which should raise his ranking inside the top-65.

Leander Paes, who constantly advises him (Sunil is managed by Paes-en-Sport's management), will be very proud of his feat of reaching the final 16.

Earlier, Sunil had defeated Craig Evans of Great Britain 6-4, 6-4 in the first round on Monday.

Sunil is also in the boys' doubles draw. He is partnering Clinton Letcher of Australia. The pair will face British wildcards Ross Hutchins and Ben Riby in the first round.

Sunil is ranked 56 in the individual doubles ranking whereas Clinton is ranked 52. The British pair is ranked around 150.

Meanwhile, Sania Mirza will face seventh seed Gisella Dulko of Argentina in the second round.

Dulko is in good form, having won the LTA grade-1 title at the Roehamton grasscourts last week, raising her rank from ninth to fifth in the ITF listings.

The Amritraj cousins, Prakash Amritraj and Stephen Amritraj of the United States are also be in the boys' doubles and will face Heinrich Heyl of South Africa and Pavel Ivanov of Russia in the first round.

On Monday, Prakash Amritraj went down to Brian Baker of the United States 6-4, 3-6, 4-6 in the first round.

Sunitha Rao of the United States also lost in the first round of girls' singles, to Dominika Nociarova of Slovakia in straight sets 6-4, 7-6(7-2).

In the Gentlemen's 35 RR doubles, Ramesh Krishnan, playing with Paul Hand of Great Britain, lost to the American pair of Jim Grabb and Jim Pugh 5-7, 7-6, 9-7 in the first round.

In the Gentlemen's 45 & over doubles, Vijay Amritraj and Anand Amritraj are seeded fourth and will face the Australian pair of Mark Edmondson and Rod Frawley in the first round.

Earlier reports:
Sania Mirza in second round
Sunil kumar qualifies for Wimbledon boys' singles
Sania Mirza gets Wimbledon girls' singles entry

Mail Sports Editor

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