Tennis: Prakash Amritraj fails to progress to Q/F

Granby (Canada) July 27: Prakash Amritraj failed to make it to the quarter-finals for the first time in three starts this month, going down fighting to local lad Milan Pokrajac 7-6 (6), 7-5 in the 50,000 dollar ATP Challenger tournament here.

Amritraj stretched the first set went all the way to the tie-breaker but the Canadian held on to his nerve to book a quarter-final berth.

The US-based Indian, who made it into the semi-final at Aptos (California) last week, failed to produce the same form of the first round when he won 6-2, 6-3 over Nicholas Tourte of France.

Son of legendary Vijay Amritraj, Prakash had leapfrogged from 467th to 276th in the charts after becoming the first Indian since Leander Paes, to reach the quarter-final stage in the last eight years at the Hall of Fame Championships at Newport, US.

UNI