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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Yuki Bhambri impresses at DSCL Open Nationals

Yuki Bhambri, all of 15, is creating waves at the DSCL Open National Tennis Championship at New Delhi. The prodigy, considered by many to be India's next tennis great, upset fourth seed Vivek Shokeen in the men's singles quarterfinals.

Shokeen, ranked 757 on the ATP list, could find no answer to the youngster's wily play. Bhambri had also accounted for sixth seed Tushar Liberhan the previous day.

In other matches, Navdeep Singh upset top seed Aditya Madkekar in straight sets but the result was not unexpected considering Singh's form. Navdeep reached the main draw of the Kingfisher Airlines Open at Mumbai in September, shot up 86 places on the ATP list and is now ranked 731.

Meanwhile, 17-year-old Prajnesh Gunneswaran survives in both the men's and boy's singles.

There were no surprises in store in the women's singles with the top four seeds progressing safely to the semifinals and number four Sonal Phadke finally accounting for lucky loser Rashmi Teltumbde.

DSCL OPEN NATIONALS - QUARTERFINALS

MEN

(8) Navdeep Singh beat (1) Aditya Madkekar 6-4,6-0
Prajnesh Gunneswaran beat (7) Vinod Sridhar 7-5,6-1
Yuki Bhambri beat (4) Vivek Shokeen 7-5,6-3
(2) Ashutosh Singh w/o (5) Vijay Kannan 5-3 retired

WOMEN

(1) Isha Lakhani beat Aishvarya Srivastava 6-4,6-3
(2) Rushmi Chakravarthi beat (8) Parul Goswami 6-0,7-5
(3) Sanaa Bhambri beat (6) Asha Nandakumar 6-0,6-2
(4) Sonal Phadke beat (LL) Rashmi Teltumbde 5-7,6-3,6-2

UNDER 18 BOYS

(1) Vijayant Malik beat Shantanu Rajput 6-0,6-1
(6) Ronak Manuja beat (4) Sitaram Sudanwa 4-6,6-1,6-4
(3) Abhijeet Tiwari beat (7) Christopher Marquis 6-3,7-6(2)
(2) Prajnesh Gunneswaran w/o (5) B Vikram Reddy 6-0,3-0 retired

UNDER 18 GIRLS

(6) Aishvarya Srivastava beat (1) Kyra Shroff 6-7(6),6-1,7-5
(9) Kelsey Sundaram beat Sharmada Balu 6-2,6-3
Rashmi Teltumbde beat (4) Vishaka Sheoran 7-5,6-2
(8) Tanvi Shah beat (2) Sweta Solanki 6-4,7-5

Mumbai misses Indians at Kingfisher Open

It took four rain-hit days to complete first round matches at the Kingfisher Airlines Tennis Open but when the roll call was taken, no Indians were left in the singles draw.

There's not going to be any consolation from doubles either. Mahesh Bhupathi, who claimed the inaugural title in 2006 with Mario Ancic, pulled out before his opening round doubles match with what appears to be a bad back.

Wildcard Rohan Bopanna, at 244 the highest ranked Indian in singles, was our best hope and he almost made it. But it was Frenchman Nicolas Devilder who prevailed 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (11-9) after saving three matchpoints.

NCAA champion Somdev Dev Varman, the other Indian wildcard in the draw, actually led 5-4 in the second set against Italian Fabio Fognini but had to settle for a 3-6, 6-7(8-10) loss at the $416,000 ATP event.

In a battle of qualifiers, Navdeep Singh couldn't find anything to break Toshihide Matsui's rhythm and lost 4-6, 6-7(6-8) to the Japanese player.

And lucky loser Purav Raja couldn't make much of a second chance, falling 4-6, 1-6 to Spain's Ivan Navarro.

Raja and Vivek Shokeen are playing doubles too, but as last-minute replacements for Bhupathi and France's Fabrice Santoro and no miracles are expected from them.

Last year's surprise finalists Bopanna and Ghouse also survive in the doubles event though with different partners - Bopanna with Pakistan's Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Ghouse with Karan Rastogi.

But the question on everybody's minds is the whereabouts of Leander Paes. The doubles specialist skipped the Mumbai event apparently because of his tiff with Bhupathi. But he and Britain's Jamie Murray are also missing in action at the ATP Bangkok event, where they were supposed to be playing this week.

Update: Ghouse and Rastogi lost to the British pair of James Auckland and Ross Hutchins 2-6, 6-3, 3-10 in a first round match on Centre Court that lasted an hour and 14 minutes.

Update 2: Bopanna and Qureshi have advanced to the doubles semifinals thanks to a walkover over Ivan Navarro of Spain and Sergio Roitman of Argentina. Roitman withdrew with an elbow injury in the quarterfinals.

Raja and Shokeen, the only other Indian pair still in the fray, lost their first round match in straight sets 3-6, 2-6 to the Serbian duo of Boris Pashanski and Victor Troicki.

Will Bopanna and Qureshi win the doubles title?
	Yes - Bopanna was a finalist at ATP Mumbai last year
	No - Luck favoured them so far, not any more
	Can't say - all depends on who they play next
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