Karan Rastogi back in action at Delhi Challenger

Karan Rastogi, India's number three tennis player, is all set to make a comeback at an ATP Challenger tournament in New Delhi next month.

Rastogi, sidelined with a back injury during the ATP Mumbai Open in September, told the Indian Tennis blog that his back was better and he planned to play both the hardcourt challenger events in the Indian capital at the end of 2007.

The 21-year-old Mumbai resident, currently ranked 344 in the world, had won the Morocco F5 claycourt Futures in July this year.

News of Rastogi's comeback should please fans of Indian tennis, which has seen many of its stars fall prey to injury this year.

Sania Mirza finished her season early while Prakash Amritraj, Harsh Mankad and Mahesh Bhupathi are also recovering from injuries. With Sunitha Rao withdrawing from two consecutive Challenger tournaments in the US this month, speculation about another injury scare were rife.

Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes have also not played since the Stockholm Open and the Madrid Masters earlier this month.

With the country's top players taking a break from tennis courts, the India F10 Futures in Gulbarga got more than its share of attention.

But India's second-string players, with the exception of world number 605 Sunil Kumar Sipaeya, failed to make it beyond the second round in the singles. Eighth seed Sipaeya lost to eventual champion Ivan Cerovic of Croatia in the quarter-finals.

There was better luck for India in the doubles with the second-seeded pair of Vijay Kannan and Kazakhstan's Alexey Kedryuk beating Tushar Liberhan and Rupesh Roy 6-4,3-6,10-3 in the final of the $15,000+ hardcourt tournament.

Across the border, sixth seed Ashwin Vijayragavan justified his seeding by making it to the singles quarterfinals of the Islamabad Futures. Pairing up with Korean Jeong-Han, Vijayragavan lost to home crowd favourites Aqeel Khan and Asim Shafik in a closely fought doubles semifinal 6-2,4-6,9-11.

Other Indians had little success abroad. Mustafa Ghouse lost in the singles qualifiers of the ATP Seoul Challenger before he and Israel's Dudi Sela bowed out in the opening round of the doubles event.

World number 728 Prerana Appineni also lost her opening singles and doubles encounters at the ITF tournament in Valencia, Venezuela. Down under in Traralgon (Australia), world number 359 Tara Iyer lost her singles opener and then forfeited her doubles quarterfinal match.

The action now shifts to the Pakistan F2 Futures grasscourt tournament in Lahore starting on Monday where a host of Indian players, led by Sipaeya, are in the fray.

India F10 Futures, Gulbarga - Day 3, 4 Results

As Day Four dawned, Sunil Kumar Sipaeya was the only Indian survivor in the singles draw of the India F10 Futures but by dusk even that hope had been snuffed out with Sipaeya losing a hard-fought three setter to Croatia's Ivan Cerovic.

The previous day, Bellary semifinalist Ashutosh Singh bowed out in the second round to Israel's Dekel Valtzer.

But there was some consolation with the doubles title certain to go India's way like at Bellary last week. Three of the four players in the title clash are Indian.

(Indian players in bold)
Singles Quarterfinal
(8)Sunil Kumar Sipaeya lost to (3)Ivan Cerovic(CRO) 5-7,6-4,2-6

Singles Round 2
Aditya Madkekar lost to (1)Pavol Cervenak(SVK) 4-6,2-6
Purav Raja lost to Philipp Oswald(AUT) 3-6,3-6
Ashutosh Singh lost to (4)Dekel Valtzer(ISR) 3-6,6-3,6-7(1)
Vivek Shokeen lost to (7)Marek Semjan(SVK) 6-3,4-6,4-6
(8)Sunil Kumar Sipaeya beat Vijay Kannan 6-1,6-3
Tushar Liberhan lost to (3)Ivan Cerovic(CRO) 1-6,2-6
(Q)Ajai Selvaraj lost to (6)Alexey Kedryuk(KAZ) 0-6,1-6

Singles Round 1
(WC) Rupesh Roy lost to (1)Pavol Cervenak(SVK) 6-7(7),7-6(9),1-6
Purav Raja beat Divij Sharan 7-5,6-3
(8)Sunil Kumar Sipaeya beat Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-3,6-2
Vijay Kannan beat (LL)Varun Walia 6-3,6-2
(Q)Rohan Gide lost to (2)Rainer Eitzinger(AUT) 2-6,2-6

Doubles Semifinal
Tushar Liberhan/Rupesh Roy beat (4)Ivan Cerovic(CRO)/Dekel Valtzer(ISR) 6-4,6-4
(2)Vijay Kannan/Alexey Kedryuk(KAZ) beat Ivan Anikanov(UKR)/Shivang Mishra 7-6(2),6-3

Doubles Quarterfinal
Tushar Liberhan/Rupesh Roy beat Rohan Gajjar/Vishnu Vardhan 6-3,6-4
Ivan Anikanov(UKR)/Shivang Mishra beat Pavol Cervenak(SVK)/Marek Semjan(SVK) 6-3,7-6(6)
(2)Vijay Kannan/Alexey Kedryuk(KAZ) beat Rohan Gide/Rahil Makharia 6-2,6-1

Day 2 results

India F10 Futures, Gulbarga - Day 2 Results

Croatia's Ivan Cerovic, runner-up at the India F9 Futures (Bellary) last week, had trouble getting past Indian prodigy Yuki Bhambri in the first round at Gulbarga.

The 15-year-old Bhambri made sure the third-seeded Croatian sweated it out for a 7-6(8),4-6,7-6(6) win and that too after the teenager had missed a couple of matchpoints.

Bhambri's gritty performance against a player ranked one thousand places above him on the ATP list marks him out as a future hope for India.

There were no major surprises on Day 2 of the India F10 Futures though some matches were abandoned after a sudden spell of rain.

(Indian players in bold)
Singles Round 1
(4)Dekel Valtzer(ISR) beat Navdeep Singh7-5,6-3
Vivek Shokeen beat (Q)Vignesh Peranamallur Chandrasekhar 6-3,7-6(3)
(7)Marek Semjan(SVK) beat (Q)Rohan Gajjar 3-6,6-3,6-4
(3)Ivan Cerovic (CRO) beat (Q)Bhambri, Yuki 7-6(8),4-6,7-6(6)
(Q)Ajai Selvaraj beat (WC)Vijayant Malik 2-6,6-3,7-5

Rain-delayed matches
(1)Pavol Cervenak(SVK) leads (WC)Rupesh Roy 7-6(4),3-3
(2)Rainer Eitzinger(AUT) leads Rohan Gide 6-2,5-1
Vijay Kannan leads (LL)Varun Walia 4-2

Day 1 results

India F10 Futures, Gulbarga - Day 1 Results

Vivek Shokeen and Ashutosh Singh, winners at the India F9 Futures (Bellary) last week, were routed in the first round of the Gulbarga event on Monday. Top seeded Austrians Rainer Eitzinger and Philipp Oswald, who lost in the Bellary final, were also ousted.

Third seeds Purav Raja and Sunil Kumar Sipaeya were upstaged by a pair of Slovakians. In the singles event, Tushar Liberhan impressed with a 6-2,6-2 win over Ukrainian Ivan Anikanov, a player ranked 22 places above Liberhan on the ATP list.

(Indian players in bold)
Singles Round 1
Aditya Madkekar beat (WC) Arjun Goutham 6-2,6-4
Ashutosh Singh beat (Q) Yannick Nelord 6-2,6-4
Tushar Liberhan beat Ivan Anikanov(UKR) 6-2,6-2
(6)Alexey Kedryuk(KAZ) beat Vishnu Vardhan 6-4,6-1
(Q)Robert Belak(SRB) beat (WC)Kaushik Raju 6-0,6-0

Doubles Round 1
Rohan Gajjar/Vishnu Vardhan beat (1)Rainer Eitzinger(AUT)/Philipp Oswald(AUT) 6-3,7-6(4)
Tushar Liberhan/Rupesh Roy beat Vivek Shokeen/Ashutosh Singh 6-2,6-4
(4)Ivan Cerovic(CRO)/Dekel Valtzer(ISR) beat Divij Sharan/Navdeep Singh 4-6,6-4,10-5
Robert Belak(SRB)/Darko Madjarovski (SRB) beat Arjun Gautam/Aditya Madkekar 6-3,6-4
Ivan Anikanov(UKR)/Shivang Mishra beat Jagadeesan Kumar/Veera Vasanth Venkatesh Sriramareddy 6-3,6-2
Pavol Cervenak(SVK)/Marek Semjan(SVK) beat (3)Purav Raja/Sunil Kumar Sipaeya 6-3,7-6(5)
Rohan Gide/Rahil Makharia beat Vignesh Peranamallur Chandrasekhar/Ajay Selvaraj 7-6,4-6,10-8
(2)Vijay Kannan/Alexey Kedriouk(KAZ) beat Vijay Sundar Prashanth/Kaushik Raju 6-1,6-4