Sanam, Kannan win Futures First-Round Singles

Chandigarh, May 28 (UNI) Fourth seeded Vijay Kannan from behind to oust wild card Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy 0-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4 in the first round singles of the 10,000 dollar SAIL ITF Men's Futures at the CLTA Stadium here today.

The three-setter lasted 124 minutes.

At the adjacent Centre Court, Sanam Singh got the better of wild card Vijayant Malik in three well-fought sets 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2 in two hours and 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, wild card Tushar Liberhan moved into second round with a facile 6-2, 6-3 verdict in one hour and 15 minutes.

Sixth seed Navdeep Singh, ranked 751st and two games down in the first set, displayed his firework to outplay wild card Kinshuk Sharma of CLTA in straight sets 6-2, 6-1.

Vinod Sridhar, 1106th, took 65 minutes to dispose of the challenge of 916th ranked Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 6-3, 6-3.

Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy played a brilliant game in the first set as he wrapped up the set without dropping even a single game. He got breaks in the second, fourth and sixth games. Kannan then raised his game and won the second set via tie-breaker 7-6 (4). In this set, Narayanaswamy broke Kannan in the seventh game to lead 4-3.

However, Kannan hit back in the next game to level the score 4-all.

The third and decider set witnessed the players exchanging breaks in the fourth and fifth games (3-all). Kannan retained his serve to lead 5-4 and broke his opponent in the 10th game to win the set and game.

Sanam possesses more variety of strokes in his armoury than Vijayant Malik. Both executed good ground strokes. They returned with power and direction. The highlight of this set was a record number of 30 points played in the 12th game with Sanam serving to make it 6-all. In the ensuing tie-breaker, Vijayant won 7-5 to take 1-0 lead.

Sanam settled down after exchanging breaks in the first two games.

The Delhi-based Chandigarh boy got the vital breakthrough in the fourth game to lead 4-1 and won the set at 6-3. One set all, Sanam raced to 4-0 lead with breaks in the first and third games to win by 6-2.

Tomorrow in the first-round singles matches, Amritraj cousins will be seen in action on the centre courts. Prakash Amritraj is pitted against Jonathan Kinsella of Great Britain and Stephen Amritraj will meet another Briton Andrew Fitzpatrick.

Results: Singles (Ist round): Sanam Singh (India) bt WC-Vijayant Malik (India) 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-3; 6-Navdeep Singh (India) bt WC-Kinshuk Sharma (India) 6-2, 6-1; 4-Vijay Kannan (India) bt WC-Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (India) 0-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4, WC-Tushar Liberhan (India) bt Kiran Nandkumar (India) 6-2, 6-3, Vinod Sridhar (India) bt Jeevan Neduchezhiyan (India) 6-3, 6-3.

UNI