Chandigarh, March 30 Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association trainee Vijayant Malik, who got wild card, got a tough draw as he faces top seeded 28-year-old wild card Rohan Bopanna in the opening singles round of the $ 10,000 India F5 Futures ITF Men’s Circuit which commences tomorrow at the Chandigarh
Lawn Tennis Association Stadium in Sector 10. Vijayant Malik went down fighting to Russian Danila Arsenov 7-6 (5) 2-6 7-5 in the final qualifying round at the the India F4 Futures ITF Men’s Circuit in Gurgaon. Bangalore-based Bopanna is ranked 328nd. Vijayant Malik is ranked 1322nd.
Despite getting a tough draw, Vijayant Malik looked confident. "Winning or losing is part of the game. However, playing against top ranked Indian Davis Cupper will give me a good experience. As Bopanna is a serve-and-volleyball player, I will try to return his serve and play my own game, said Malik. "My match against Bopanna is on Tuesday. I am also preparing for by BA part I examinations which begin on April 2. I am metally ready for tournament as well as examinations," said Vijayant Malik.
Chinese Peng Sun has been seeded second with a ranking of 487th.The Chinese player, who lost to Nathan Thomson of USA in semi-final at Gurgaon, will meet qualifier in his first round. Nathan went on to win the India F4 Futures ITF Men’s Circuit in Gurgaon, is pitted to challenge Japanese Katsushi Fukuda (1023rd) in first round encounter. Indian Asuthosh Singh, seeded fourth of India will cross swords with Divij Sharan, of India.
Talented Yuki Bhambri (1679th) of India has been given wild card and faces John McGahon (926th) of Israel while another wild card entrant Harsh Mankad will meet qualifier in their opener.
Six Indians — Vishnu Vardhan, Virali Murugesan, Rupesh Roy, N Vijay Sundar Prashanth, Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Mithu Murali — advanced to the final qualifying round today. Five Chinese — Ji Shi, Hul Zhang, Xiao Qi, Zhuo-Qing and Ye Du — are also giving impressive display as they moved into final qualifying round.
Idan Rosenberg (Isr), Ilya Belyaev (Russia), Christoph Lessiak (Austria), Ciaran Moore (South Africa) and P Siriluethaiwatana (Thailand) were the other foreign players who took their appointed place in the final qualifying round. The final qualifying matches will be played tomorrow.
Results: Qualifying (2nd Round): Ji Shi (Chn) bt Mario Tupy (Aut) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, Prajnesh Gunneswaran (Ind) bt Kamala Kannan (Ind) 6-1, 6-4, Hui Zhang (Chn) bt Siddharth Gulgule (Ind) 6-1, 6-3, Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (Ind) bt Peter Skoda (Can) 6-1, 6-0, Rupesh Roy (Ind) bt Ura Mukovoz (Rus) 6-2, 6-2, Ciaran Moore (Rsa) bt Kaushik Raju (Ind) 6-1, 6-1, Christoph Lessiak (Aut) bt Vikram Reddy B (Ind) 6-3, 6-3, Xiao Qi (Chn) bt Rubal shandilya (Ind) 6-1, 7-6 (5), Ilya Belyaev (Rus) bt Ying-Zheng Wang (Chn) 6-4, 7-5, Zhuo-Qing Zhou (Chn) bt Joseph Squillacioti (Aus) Vishnu Vardhan (Ind) bt Vikas Chauhan (Ind) Idan Rosenberg (Isr) bt Yannick Nelord (Ind) 6-4, 6-0, Mithun Murali (Ind) bt Bharath Srinivasan Parthasarathy (Ind) 6-2, 6-2, N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (Ind) bt Alexander Gigitashvili (Rus) 6-1, 6-1, Ye Du (Chn) bt Yashwant Pulumati (Ind) 6-0, 6-0, Perakiat Siriluethaiwattana (Tha) bt Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (Ind) 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.
Man draw seedings: Singles: 1 Rohan Boppana (328th, India), 2 Peng Sun (487th, China), 3 Hyun-Woo Nam (524th, Korea), 4 Autosh Singh (610th, India), 5 Yu Jr Wang (620th, China), 6 Nathan Thomson (657th, USA), 7 Kento Takeuchi (662nd, Japan) and 8 Hsin-Han Lee (702nd, Tpe).
Men’s doubles: 1 Vivek Shokeen and Ashutosh (India), 2 Vijay Kannan and Navdeep Singh (India), 3 Rohan Gajjar and Purav Raja (India), 4 Hsin-Han Lee and Yu Jr Wang (China).