Tata for Bhupathi
Mid-day - December 29, 2002

Mahesh Bhupathi was upset by Rishi Sridhar 3-6 6-3 6-4 on a day when the Indian challenge almost ended in the qualifying rounds of the Tata Open ATP tennis championship on Saturday.

Mustafa Ghouse and Vishal Uppal were the other two among the 12 Indians to reach the second round, but they too feel by way side against tougher opponents as the seeded players lived up to their billing.

In the first round matches, Uppal and Ghouse defeated Amritraj cousins, Stephen, son of Anand Amritraj, and Vikram, son of son of Vijay Amritraj, respectively.

But, playing against sixth seeded Julien Varlet of Germany, Uppal lost in straight sets 2-6 0-6 while Ghouse was defeated by seventh seeded Michael Kohlmann (Ger) 1-6 2-6.

Sridhar plays Thomas Behrend of Germany in his second round match on Sunday.

The match between Bhupathi and Sridhar was fought closely. Sridhar was fought closely. Sridhar rallied from a set down to shut out higher ranked Bhupathi 3-6 6-3 6-4.

Davis Cupper Harsh Mankad put up the toughest resistance against third seeded German Bjorn Phau, but the experienced German eventually booked his place in the second round with a 6-3 5-7 6-4 win.

Arun Prakash lost to Mose Navarra, a doubles finalist in 2000, 6-4 7-6 (11/9) while Manoj mahadevan could not keep up the momentum after taking the first set against Frenchman Olivier Patience, who pulled off a 6-7 (5) 6-3 6-2 victory.

Vijay Kannan, Ajay Ramasamy, Vinod Sridhar and Kamala Kannan were the other Indians who perished in the first round.