Bhupathi, Fazal gel well to move up

Bhupathi, Fazal gel well to move up
United News of India

Mumbai, February 14: Second seeded Indian duo Mahesh Bhupathi and Syed Fazaluddin today eased into the doubles second round of the MTNL-ATP Challenger beating Donavan September of America and Stefano Coboli of Italy 6-1, 5-7, 6-1 here at the Cricket Club of India.

Bhupathi-Syed, combining for the first time, showed superb understanding to kill the foreigners’ service in the first and third games to wrap up the first set in 20 minutes. However, they faced some hiccups in the second in which Bhupathi was broken in the 11th game.

But in the last set Coboli and September lost their service in the second and fourth and issue was settled quickly. In singles, third seeded Vadim Kustenko of Uzbekistan became the fifth seed to fall. Branislav Sekac of Slovakia scalped him 6-3, 7-5.

In the other second round matches, S Galvani (Italy) beat V Chvets (Belarus) 6-3, 6-2; D Scheppingen (Holland) defeated A Shvec (Belarus) 4-6, 6-3, 6-3; and L Svarc (Slovakia) beat O Fukarek (Czeck) 7-5, 7-5.

Earlier on Tuesday, Bhupathi and Fazaluddin had bowed out tamely in the singles. Bhupathi found the going tough against fourth seeded Scheppingen losing the tie in just 45 minutes. Though he started off promisingly breaking his opponent in the very first game, Bhupathi failed to hold his serve in the next dropping a shot too long and then banging another into the net. Bhupathi lost his serve in the sixth to lose the set 6-3 in just 25 minutes. The second set too suffered the similar fate as the Indian lot 6-2.

Syed Fazaluddin’s never seemed recovering from bad run since losing his both the singles against China. He proved a easy meat for his top seed Italian opponent Filippo Volandri, who wrapped-up the match in just one hour. Fazaluddin lost 5-7, 4-6.