The Krishnan Tennis Centre trainee from Chennai suffered a couple of hiccups before he sent out Mumbai's Harsh Mankad 6-1, 7-6 (7-2) in 90 minutes in the first round today.

After overnight rains delayed the start of play by nearly two hours, the first-round matches today got over quickly except for one which lasted two hours. Sreenivasan Pravin Kumar stretched German Gerhard Fahlke to three sets before he succumbed to fatigue. Fahlke won 7-5, 2-6, 6-0.

Sridhar dropped two match points while serving for the match at 5-4 up in the second set before Mankad closed in. The 19-year-old too had three break points but could convert only the fourth to take the set to a tie-breaker.

Mankad, who spent four weeks in June training in the United States, was not helped by a double fault in the tie-breaker andtrailed 2-4. He committed two more errors -- he later admitted to many in the match -- which helped Sridhar to a 6-2 lead and his final match point.

The second year B.Sc student, who had beaten Mankad in March at Chennai, sent a high lob, forcing the local lad to run back and return, which found the net.

``I just need more match practice,'' said Mankad after the match, adding that he was playing well but was not into the match-groove.

Narrow miss for Pravin:

Pravin said that the first set was the crucial one. ``At 5-5, I felt good. But the next game turned out to be a long one with plenty of deuces and I lost the game. That was the turning point.''

``If I had won that set, I would have pulled it off,'' said the 22-year-old Bangalore-based player.

But the 23-year-old German, also Pravin's doubles partner in the tournament, committed too many errors to lose the second set, with Pravin battling on gamely.

``I told him that if he hit me (when a player aims a shot at his opponent) hewouldn't be able to play the doubles,'' laughed the Gerhard Fahlke, on Pravin's aggressive display.

Though he lost the decider, Pravin said that his two-year stint in Germany between 1996-98, a trip sponsored by Air-India, had helped him understand the German technique. His stint of playing club tennis and part-time coaching in Frankfurt has also given him a hint of his true calling -- coaching.

Meanwhile, top seed and Gerhard's younger brother Andy crushed Avinash Arun in 50 minutes 6-2, 6-0.

Vishaal Uppal, not yet fully cured of the troublesome ankle that forced him out of the Delhi Nationals last week, pulled out of his first round match against Saurav Panja when trailing 1-6, 0-1.

Results

Men's singles (first round): Saurav Panja (Ind) bt Vishaal Uppal (Ind) 6-1, 1-0 (conceded); Andy Fahlke (Ger) bt Avinash Arun (Ind) 6-2, 6-0; Timo Nigri (Ger) bt Zaman Sanzaruz (Ind) 6-3, 6-4; Vinod Sridhar (Ind) bt Harsh Mankad (Ind) 6-1, 7-6 (7-2); Gerhard Fahlke (Ger) bt Sreenivasan Pravin Kumar (Ind)7-5, 2-6, 6-0; Vijendra Laad (Ind) bt Anand Radhakrishnan (Ind) 6-3, 6-1; Federico Rovai (Swe) bt Ravikiran Bhat (Ind) 6-1, 6-1; Johan Hede (Swe) bt Vijay Kannan (Ind) 6-2, 6-1.

Doubles (qualifying):

Sandeep/Nitin Kirtane bt P Srinath/Vasudeva Reddy 7-6 (7-5), 6-2; Avinash Arun/V Sridhar bt David McCabe/Barth 6-2, 6-2.