Ramaswami upsets Sipaeya

Indian Davis Cupper Harsh Mankad made a timely recovery to clinch a 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 victory over compatriot and seventh seed Vishal Uppal in a first round match in the third and final leg of ITF men's tennis tournament in Davangere, Karnataka, on Tuesday.

National Games gold medallist Ajay Ramaswami upset second seed Sunil Kumar Sipaeya 6-4, 6-3 in another match.

In other matches, 17-year-old Arjun Goutham went down fighting to Shivang Mishra 6-7 (6/8), 6-2, 5-7 while top seed Mustafa Ghouse had an easy 6-4, 6-2 win over qualifier Ritesh Chitlangiya.

Vinod Sridhar,winner of the second leg at Delhi, got past lucky loser Joseph Huber (Austria) 6-2, 6-1.

Starting on a positive note, Sipaeya, who was leading 4-2 in the first set, saw Ramaswami growing in confidence to break the second seed's serves in the eighth and tenth games to win the first set.

In the second, Ramaswami held on to his serves while breaking Sipaeya in the sixth game which proved enough to wrap up the match.

In the Harsh Mankad-Vishal Uppal match, Mankad somehow lost his concentration in between and almost allowed the seventh seed through to the next round. But, the Davis Cupper, runner-up in the first leg at Chandigarh, found his rhythm in time to emerge victorious as Vishal just could not get his serve working.