On the other hand, sixth seed Sandeep Kirtane continued to make good use of the exposure at this level, as he entered the quarter-finals with a hard-fought 7-5, 5-7, 7-6 (7-3) win against Hungarian Balazs Veress.

Sandeep, who is aiming for a comeback in the elite four of the Indian Davis Cup team, has shown good strength and skills till now, beating two regular Indian Davis Cuppers -- Prahlad Srinath (first-leg, first round) and Syed Fazaluddin (second-leg, quarter-finals) and today the stubborn Hungarian, ranked 848 on the ATP computer.

The fact that Sandeep, overcoming injuries, kept his feet firm on court for twohours 38 minutes, itself, speaks volumes of his prowess.

The former Davis Cupper took 52-minutes to win the first set, with breaks in 3rd and 11th, before conceeding the 10th. In the second set, Balazs looked more controlled and led 3-0 holding serves twice and breaking the second. Sandeep, narrowed the gap with a fifth game break, made it 3-3 and kept on till both spilt ten. Losing his concentration at this juncture made him pay in the form of a crucial 12th game, thus handing Balazs the set 7-5.

The third was the longest of all: one hour, 11 minutes. With both players opting for safe play, the set went on with serves till the tenth. Sandeep moved into a higher gear, with indicatons of finishing the match, as he gained a vital 11th game break (6-5) which was neutralised almost immediately.

The elusive victory was not far as the Indian took an early grip in the tie-breaker with a 4-2 lead and wrapped up the tie 7-3.

UPPAL SHOCKS THORNADTSSON: For Vishal Uppal, his experience playing doublesheld in good stead. He kept pushing himself and was patient at times when required the tricks he has learned by playing doubles along with partner Mustafa Ghouse.

The Indian never allowed Thornadtsson to settle in, playing him on his backhand with low tantalising returns. Vishal jumped to a 4-1 lead, with breaks in third and fifth game, before dropping serve in the sixth. In the second set, the duo traded breaks twice in the first and second games and later in the sixth and seventh games. But Vishal earned the all-important break in the 11th and then held his serve in the next to win 6-4, 7-5.

QUARTER-FINAL LINE-UP
1-Tom Chicoine (USA, 500) Vs 7-Kunj Majmudar (USA, 1232); 4-Thomas Messmer (Ger, 949) Vs 6-Sandeep Kirtane (Ind, 782); 3-Prahlad Srinath (Ind, 312) Vs Vishal Uppal (Ind); 2-Radim Zitko (Cze, 464) Vs Nitin Kirtane (Ind, 828).

RESULTS (2nd round)
(Seedings in prefix, country, ranking)1-Tom Chicoine (USA, 500) bt Zbynek Mlynarik (Aut, 786) 6-2, 6-1; 7-Kunj Majmudar (USA,1232) bt Akshay Vishal Rao (Ind) 6-0, 6-2; 4-Thomas Messmer (Ger, 949) bt Rohan Boppana (Ind, 1221) 6-3, 6-1; 6-Sandeep Kirtane (Ind, 782) bt Balazs Veress (Hun, 848) 7-5, 5-7, 7-6 (7-3); Vishal Uppal (Ind) bt 5-Per Thornadtsson (Swe, 495) 6-4, 7-5; 3-Prahlad Srinath (Ind, 312) bt Mustafa Ghouse (Ind) 7-5, 6-2; Nitin Kirtane (Ind, 828) bt Vijay Kannan (Ind, 826) 7-6 (7-2), 6-4; 2-Radim Zitko (Cze, 464) bt Josef Nesticky (Cze) 6-2, 6-2.

DOUBLES (1st round)
1-Nitin Kirtane-Sandeep Kirtane (Ind, 575) bt Benjamin Xavier- Chandrasekhar Mohanty (Ind) 1-6, 6-1, 6-1; Thomas Messmer (Ger)-Balazs Veress (Hun) bt Josef Nesticky-Radim Zitko (Cze) 7-6 (7-1), 3-6, 6-2; 3-Tom Chicoine-Kunj Majmudar (USA) bt Saurav Panja-Anand Radhakrishnan (Ind) 6-4, 6-3; Prahlad Srinath-Vasudeva Reddy (Ind) bt Sunil Kumar-Akshay Vishal Rao (Ind) 6-2, 6-0; Vijay Kannan-Manoj Mahadevan (Ind) bt Andrei Youzhny (Rus)-Zbynek Mlynarik (Aut) 6-3, 6-4; 4-Syed Fazaluddin (Ind)-Abraham Doug (USA) bt Rishi Sridhar-K Shivshankar 9Ind)5-7, 6-3, 6-4; Blake Brinklow (Aus)-Niko Karagiannis (Gre) 6-2, 6-2; Rohan Bopanna-Kedar Shah (Ind) bt 2-Mustafa Ghouse-Vishal Uppal (Ind) 6-3, 4-1 concede.

Ten Indians, including Prahlad Srinath, Syed Fazaluddin, the Kirtane cousins Sandeep and Nitin and Vishal Uppal have made it to the ITF Satellite tennis circuit Masters to be held at Mumbai from November 8 to 12.

American Tom Chicoine, ranked 500 in world, tops the list of 21 qualifiers with 25 circuit points (the circuit points are calculated on the basis of performance in the first two legs), followed by Radim Zitko (Cze) and Thomas Messmer of Germany.

National hardcourt champion Sunil Kumar along with Vasudeva Reddy, Mustafa Ghouse, K Shivshankar and Niko Karagiannis of Greece will have to go through the play-offs to qualify for the Masters as they have five circuit points. The play-off will be held in Pune on November 5.

THOSE WHO HAVE QUALIFIED FOR MASTERS: Tom Chicoine (USA, 500), Radim Zitko (Cze, 464), Thomas Messmer (Ger, 949),Prahlad Srinath (Ind, 312), Per Thornadtsson (Swe, 495), Sandeep Kirtane (Ind, 782), Kunj Majmudar (USA, 1232), Andrei Youzhny (Rus, 1069), Mathais Bergman-Kempe (Swe, 1300), Rohan Bopanna (Ind, 1221), Mlynarik Zbynek (Aut, 768), Manoj Mahadevan (Ind, 1300), Vinod Shridhar (Ind, 693), Akshay Vishal Rao (Ind), Syed Fazaluddin (Ind, 418), Josef Nesticky (Cze), Vijay Kannan (Ind, 826), Balazs Veress (Hun, 848), Van Wyk Coenie (SA), Nitin Kirtane (Ind, 828), Vishal Uppal (Ind).

FOR PLAY-OFF: Niko Karagiannis (Gre, 969), Sunil Kumar (Ind), Vasudeva Reddy (Ind), Saurav Panja (Ind, 874), Shivshankar Kambargimath (Ind), Mustafa Ghouse (Ind).