Chennai, Jan 1 (IANS) Vishnu Vardhan, the 23-year old from Andhra Pradesh, ousted third seeded Conor Niland of Ireland 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the second round of the qualifying tournament of the Aircel ATP Chennai Open tennis here Saturday.
Vardhan, ranked 386 as against 29-year old Conor’s 129, came up with a fine rearguard action to save two match points in the second set after losing the first, and then fought back from 2-4 in the decider third for a splendid victory in two hours 41 minutes.
Vardhan next meets Croatian Ante Pavic who put out Pakistani Aisam Ul-Haq Qureshi, the doubles partner of Indian Davis Cupper Rohan Bopanna, 6-4, 6-4.
Another Indian Karunday Singh got the better of German Andreas Gremelmayr 6-2, 6-2.
The other two locals, Sanam Singh and Karan Rastogi were eliminated in the first round. Sanam Singh, winner of the doubles gold medal at the Asian Games with Somdev Devvarman went down to Croatia’s Franco Skugor 6-1, 6-2, while Rajeev Ram of the United States put out Rastogi 7-6 (4), 6-3.
The results (qualifying):
First round: Rajeev Ram (US) bt Karan Rastogi (IND) 7-6 (4), 6-3; Alxander Kudryavtsev (RUS) bt Puraj Raja (IND) 6-0, 6-1; Ante Pavic (CRO) bt Aisam Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) 6-4, 6-4; Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Conor Niland (IRL) 4-6, 7-5, 6-4; Franco Skugor (CRO) bt Sanam Singh (IND) 6-1, 6-2; Evgeny Kirillov (RUS) bt Ajai Selvaraj (IND) 6-4, 6-1; Milos Raonic (CAN) bt Aldin Setkic (BIH) 6-2, 6-4; Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) bt Shahbaaz Khan (IND) 6-1, 6-0; Ivo Minar (CZE) bt N Vijay Sunder Prashanth (IND) 6-1, 6-3; Go Soeda (JPN) bt Dnaiel Puttkammer (GER) 5-2 (retd); Konstatin Kravhuk (RUS) bt Divij Sharan (IND) 6-2, 7-6 (3); Rupesh Roy (IND) bt Vignesh Peranamallur (IND) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; Leos Friedl (CZE) bt David Marin (US) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; Yuichi Sugita (JPN) bt Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (IND) 6-3, 6-0; Karunday Singh (IND) bt Andreas Gremelmayr (GER) 6-2, 6-2; David Goffin (BEL) bt Akash Wagh (IND) 6-1, 6-1.
