Vishnu crashes out; Jeevan in quarters

Mumbai: Davis Cupper Vishnu Vardhan crashed out of the men`s singles pre-quarterfinals of the USD 15,000 CCI-ITF men`s Futures Tennis tournament here on Wednesday.

Apart from Vishnu, other seeded players in N Sriram Balaji, Saket Myneni and Vijayant Malik also bowed out of the tournament after losing their respective matches. However, sixth seeded Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, who recently lifted the men`s title in the senior nationals, made it to the quarterfinals with a hard-fought victory. Vishnu, who survived a gruelling three-setter against another Secunderabad rival Ashwin Vijayraghavan in round one yesterday, dropped the opening set against Croatia`s Mate Pavic 5-7 before he conceded the match. Pavic would take on Indian eighth seeded Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan. "I was having stiffness in the knee," Vishnu, who is currently ranked 272, said after the match. Vishnu has also pulled out of next week`s Futures in Pune and "will take a call" later on next month`s Challenger event in Yokohama, Japan. Also making an exit was third seeded Sriram, who was beaten after a two-and-a-half hour battle against Britain`s James Marsalek, a quarter-finalist at last week`s Qatar Futures in Doha. The 20-year-old Marsalek, who practised for five days against US Open champion and London Olympic gold medallist Andy Murray before reaching Qatar, won 4-6 6-2 6-4. Marsalek, ranked 570 in the world after being 681st last year-end, would meet India`s Purav Raja, who shocked seventh seeded Malik 7-5 4-6 6-4 in two hours and 18 minutes. The other seeded Indian casualty, Myneni, lost to Micolas Reissig of Austria 6-2 4-6 5-7. Jeevan registered a 4-6 6-3 6-2 win over compatriot Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash. PTI