Bopanna, Cerretani crash out

Cincinnati, US: Indian Davis cupper Rohan Bopanna and his American partner James Cerretani crashed out of the $2,615,000 Cincinnati Masters tournament after suffering a straight sets defeat here in the first round.

The Indo-American partner lost 6-7(5), 2-6 to Simon Aspelin of Sweden and Jamie Murray of Great Britain, in one hour and seven minutes on Monday.

Meanwhile, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have got first round byes along with their respective partners in the tournament.

— PTI

***

Parija eases into 2nd round

New Delhi: Parija Maloo made a confident start at the $10,000 ITF women’s tournament in Rabat, Morocco as she easily advanced to the second round after defeating Sophie Cornerotte of Belgium in straight sets.

The sixth seed Indian beat her Belgian opponent 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of the clay court event.

She will next face Spaniard Nuria Parrizas, who defeated So-Yeon Kim of Korea 6-2, 6-0 in her first round clash.

Another Indian in the fray, Parul Goswami will open her campaign against Melisa Cabrera-Handt of Spain. — PTI

***

Vikram, Aditya advance

New Delhi: Vikram Malhotra and Aditya Jagtap advanced to the round of 32 in the World Junior Squash Championships with contrasting wins in the preliminary stages of the event in Zurich, Switzerland.

Vikram cruised to the round of 32 after defeating Kuwaiti Fahad B Al-Ramezy 9-0, 9-2, 9-1 and Joshua Larkin from Australia 9-4, 9-3, 9-6 in the third and fourth rounds respectively.

Aditya joined Vikram after overcoming Frederick Reid of Canada 9-0, 9-4, 7-9, 10-8. It was Aditya’s tactical play that saw him go through to the next round in a gruelling 52-minute contest. — PTI

***

Reddy outplays Balan

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT

Mumbai

July 29: Junior national champion Sikky Reddy of Andhra Pradesh caused the upset of the day as she sent home, second seed Aparna Balan of Petroleum Sports Promotional Board 25-23, 21-11 to enter the quarter-finals of the women’s singles of the first Tata Open all-India badminton tournament at Bombay Gymkhana, here on Tuesday.

In a fierce contest that lasted 30 minutes, Reddy pocketed the first game 25-23 after a neck-and-neck battle, but easily took the lead in the second game to win the match. Balan could not get her act together at all in the second game.

In the men’s singles, it was junior national champion Sai Dutt of Andhra Pradesh who outsed seventh-seeded opponent Jishnu Sanyal of Air India in an entertaining contest that lasted 70 minutes. Dutt won 19-21, 21-11, 24-22 and will now face top seed Arvind Bhat in the quarterfinals.