Why Tara Iyer lost so early in the Pune Challenger

In case you were stumped by Tara Iyer's first round loss at the ITF $25,000 Pune Challenger this week, here's the explanation.

The 19-year-old was playing after a week of "not practising due to an abdominal pull". And that reflected in her 4-6, 2-6 loss to fellow Indian Rushmi Chakravarthi.

"I still wasn't able to serve normally and was a bit rusty," Iyer told the Indian Tennis Blog.

"Anyway, I'm doing rehab and hopefully it should be okay in a week or so."

Interestingly, Iyer also lost to Chakravarthi in the second round of the Pune event in 2006.

But this year, the fourth-seeded Iyer was the highest ranked Indian in the draw and had been expected to sail past Chakravarthi - who at 472 is ranked more than a hundred places below Iyer (368) on the WTA list.

Iyer, number 3 in India after Sania Mirza and Sunitha Rao, is enjoying her best year on the circuit so far having achieved a career high rank of 350 in September 2007.

Harsh Mankad returns, Ashutosh Singh proves his mettle

Pakistan may be in the headlines for the wrong reasons but India's National Champion Ashutosh Singh made sure it wasn't all bad news by reaching the final of the ITF Pakistan F3 Futures in Lahore.

Singh lost a tight match 3-6,6-3,7-6(6) to top-seeded Czech Adam Vejmelka in the final but the 25-year-old Indian shouldn't be too disappointed by his performance against a player ranked 240 places above him on the ATP list.

Partnering Vivek Shokeen, Singh had earlier grabbed the doubles title beating Vejmelka and his Romanian partner Bogdan-Victor Leonte 6-1,6-4.

The 575-ranked Singh also leads the Indian contingent for a bilateral tennis series against Pakistan starting in Lahore on Tuesday.

Doubles was the key for India in women's tennis this week with both Sunitha Rao and Prerana Appineni reaching the doubles semifinals at separate ITF events. Second seeds Rao and American Jill Craybas bowed out to an American pair at ITF Pittsburgh while Appineni and American Beatrice Capra lost a thrilling super-tiebreaker in the ITF Lima (Peru) semifinals.

But the big news for India is the return of Harsh Mankad after a year-long break from the tennis court thanks to knee injuries. Currently ranked 1456, Mankad is playing the qualifiers at the ATP Challenger in Champaign, USA.

Mankad turned 28 on Saturday and the Mumbai resident knows only too well how hard it will be for him to crack the ATP Top 200. His career best singles ranking of 222 was a milestone achieved two years ago.

Also playing next week is Indian number one Rohan Bopanna. The 261-ranked Bopanna has the unenviable challenge of playing 75-ranked German Benjamin Becker in the first round of the ATP Challenger in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.

At least doubles specialist Leander Paes has better odds despite a spate of opening round defeats recently. Fourth seeds Paes and Czech partner Martin Damm will fancy their chances at the Shanghai Masters Cup when they take on defending champions Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi on Sunday.

In women's tennis, India's number two Sunitha Rao will try her luck at the ITF $50,000 La Quinta, US tournament while Tara Iyer will lead a phalanx of fellow Indians at the $25,000 ITF Pune tournament. Both events kick off on Monday.

Can Paes and Damm win the Tennis Masters Cup?
	Yes - these defeats will make them hungry for victory
	No - they have lost their magic
	Depends on luck
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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.

Stephen Amritraj, Ashutosh Singh shine this week

The big names of Indian tennis couldn't weave much magic in tournaments this week, leaving little known players Stephen Amritraj and Ashutosh Singh to impress with breakthrough performances.

Amritraj, who grew up in the Californian city of Calabasas, partnered American Adam Davidson to reach the doubles semifinal at the ATP Calabasas Challenger.

The duo, who gained entry as lucky losers because of an injury default to Jan-Michael Gambill, stunned top seeds Bobby Reynolds and Rajeev Ram 6-3,6-4 in the opening round.

Amritraj, 23, and Davidson eventually lost 5-7,2-6 to fourth seeds Robert Kendrick(US) and Cecil Mamiit(PHI) in the semifinal.

Stephen, son of former tennis player Anand Amritraj, had partnered cousin Prakash to reach the semifinals of the Fergana Challenger earlier this year.

Back home in India, newly crowned National hard court champion Ashutosh Singh spearheaded the country's challenge at the India F9 Futures in Bellary, Karnataka.

Singh's splendid run in the singles event, which began with ousting top seed Pavol Cervenak of Slovakia 6-3,6-4 in the opening round, came to an end in the semifinals.

Singh, ranked 659 on the ATP list, lost to third seeded Austrian Rainer Eitzinger 4-6,3-6.

But he gained revenge by partnering Vivek Shokeen (in pic) to beat Eitzinger and Philipp Oswald 7-6(4),3-6,10-5 in the doubles final.

Wildcard Rupesh Roy, who lost in the quarterfinals to Singh, also impressed with a second round win over Romania's Adrian Gavrila.

Elsewhere in Europe, Sania Mirza lost in her Zurich Open opener before retiring for the season while Leander Paes and Martin Damm lost in the second round of the Madrid Masters doubles.

Sunitha Rao, who reached the finals at the ITF San Francisco Tennis Classic last week, withdrew from the ITF Lawrenceville Challenger at the last minute.

Down under in Gympie(Australia), Tara Iyer couldn't do much against fourth seeded home favourite Monique Adamczak and lost 1-6,6-7(5) in the first round.

Partnering Nungnudda Wannasuk of Thailand, Iyer also lost to Adamczak and Briton Jade Curtis 7-6(2),6-7(3),5-10 in the doubles quarterfinal.

Sunitha Rao falls at final hurdle in San Francisco

A brilliant run in the $50,000 ITF San Francisco Tennis Classic ended with defeat in the final for India's Sunitha Rao. The eighth seed couldn't keep the magic going against top seeded American Ashley Harkleroad and went down tamely 6-1, 6-2.

The loss was a disappointing one for Rao but it was still her best result for 2007 - gaining her $3,990 in prizemoney and 25 valuable WTA points. Her latest ranking shot ten places up to 175 and Rao is now within striking distance of her career-best ranking of 152 (achieved in July 2003).

The Florida-based player had started the year ranked 232 and had dipped as low as 278 in June before jumping 100 places in just four months. Rao had also been the losing finalist in a $25,000 ITF event at Tampa in July.

The San Francisco result had not been an unexpected one. Harkleroad, although now ranked just 92, is a former Top 40 player and not one to be taken lightly. Interestingly, Rao had won their previous encounter in the 2003 Australian Open qualifiers, albeit in three sets.

Rao, who will celebrate her 22nd birthday on October 27, also had luck on her side - she didn't face anybody ranked higher than her in the four matches till the final.

In the latest WTA rankings (October 15), Rao led an army of Indian women moving up the list. Tara Iyer moved one place up to 358, Rushmi Chakravarthi gained two places to be ranked 368 and Isha Lakhani moved up three spots to 432.

But Indian number one Sania Mirza dropped one spot to 30, thanks to a first round exit at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.

In the doubles, Mirza moved up one spot to 19, while Rao lost three places to be placed 141. The biggest loser of the week was Shikha Uberoi - who slid 43 places to 209.

Rohan Bopanna, the best Indian player in the men's singles, was down nine places (260) while Prakash Amritraj slid two spots (270). The big gainer - no. 343 Karan Rastogi who moved up four places.

In the doubles rankings, Bopanna's semifinal run at ATP Stockholm saw him jump seven places to 79 while Leander Paes(17) and Mahesh Bhupathi(21) retained their spots on the list.

Middle-level Indian players have a chance to earn valuable points at the men's $15,000 India F9 Futures event at Bellary, Karnataka which kicked off on Monday.

Can Sunitha Rao ever match Sania Mirza's achievements?
	Yes - the way she's playing, anything is possible
	No - Rao doesn't have what it takes
	Can't say - we'll have to watch her in 2008
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Paes, Bopanna and Sunitha Rao impress this week

It's been a reasonably good week for Indian tennis but not for Sania Mirza. India's number one singles player floundered in the opening round of the Kremlin Cup - falling to nemesis Gisela Dulko in her third straight carrer defeat to the Argentine.

Her luck in the doubles was only marginally better. Partnering Switzerland's Patty Schnyder, Mirza was ousted by the world's best doubles pair - Cara Black and Liezel Huber - in the quarterfinals.

Be that as it may, ATP Tour veteran Justin Gimelstob had this to say about the 20-year-old in his SI.com column this week.

"Mirza has ignited a continent with her success. She is a cult figure in her native India, and can't walk down the street without a full security detail. She possesses one of the biggest forehands in the game, and is attractive and charming. She's also integral to growing the game in the Far East."

As such the flag for Indian tennis was held high by Leander Paes. Just weeks before he ends his partnership with Martin Damm, the dynamic duo reached the semifinals of the BA-CA Tennis Trophy tournament in Vienna.

Paes and Damm even had two matchpoints before the fourth seeded Polish pair of Marciusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski advanced to the final with a 2-6, 7-5, 12-10 win.

Paes would be partnering Paul Hanley of Australia in 2008 and his reasons for splitting with Damm are purely professional.

"We have different goals next year...Martin wants to cut down on his tennis, while I want to play a full year, so we decided to get new partners," Paes told The Telegraph from Vienna.

Also impressive this week was Rohan Bopanna whose semifinal appearance with Belgium's Olivier Rochus at the ATP Stockholm Open is further proof he's going to make it big in doubles. His stint as lucky loser in the singles draw had ended after he squandered a 4-1 lead to lose in straight sets to Spain's Albert Montanes in the first round. But Bopanna made good in the doubles with a win over South Africa's Jeff Coetzee and Dutchman Rogier Wassen.

It was only in the semis that second seeds Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi got the better of the Indo-Belgian pair in straight sets - 6-3, 7-5.

On the ITF circuit, Sunitha Rao has made the quarterfinals of the $50,000 San Francisco event. Her match against Indonesia's Romana Tedjakusuma wasn't over when this report was filed but there's a good chance the eighth seed will get through easily to the semis. Rao had routed Tedjakusuma in straight sets at a $25,000 tournament in Tampa, USA earlier this year.

Top seeds Rao and American Julie Ditty stumbled in their doubles opener - falling to an unseeded pair from South Africa.

Down Under in Rockhamption, eighth seed Tara Iyer made it to the second round before qualifier Robin Stephenson proved too strong for the Indian on the Australian hardcourts.

In domestic action, Bellary in Karnataka will play host to the $15,000 India F9 Futures event next week with most of India's top singles players in attendance.

Tara Iyer crashes out of Sunfeast Open

Wildcard Tara Iyer crashed out of the 2007 Sunfeast Open with a 6-3, 6-1 loss to seventh seed Italy's Flavia Pennetta while Sunitha Rao and her Australian partner entered the doubles semifinals thanks to a walkover.

Iyer, ranked 354 on the WTA list, was broken five times in an hour-long match though to her credit she also broke the 69-ranked Pennetta's serve once in the first set.

Pennetta, 25, had been ranked as high as 16 in the world early last year. And the 19-year-old Iyer did give the Italian some anxious moments in the first set.

Iyer's first round defeat means that Sunitha Rao is now the only Indian left in the singles draw of the $175,000 hardcourt tournament at Kolkata's Netaji Indoor stadium.

The Florida-based Rao, ranked 211 in the world, was scheduled to play 144-ranked Briton Anne Keothavong in the second round.

In the doubles event, Rao and Australia's Monique Adamczak assured themselves of at least $2140 in prize money after securing a semifinal berth.

In the first round, the duo defeated Indian American Neha Uberoi and Poland's Marta Domachowska 6-1, 6-4 and later had the benefit of a walkover over fourth seeded Italians Sara Errani and Flavia Pennetta. Errani had withdrawn after complaining of lower back pain.

But Ankita Bhambri and Rushmi Chakravarthi were humbled 6-1, 6-1 by the top-seeded duo of American Vania King and Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva. The quarterfinal opponents for King and Kudryavtseva will be Tara Iyer and Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak who had advanced earlier.

Kyra Shroff and Ashvarya Shrivastava also crashed out in the opening round, going down 6-1, 6-1 to Italy's Alberta Brianti and Ukraine's Maria Koryttseva.