Bopanna falls by the wayside

Talented Sunil Kumar Sipaeya of Chandigarh pulled off a major upset by ousting top seeded Rohan Bopanna as most of the seeded players in both the men's and women's singles cruised into the quarter-finals of the Indian Oil Servo National Senior grasscourt tennis championship at the South Club in Kolkata on Monday.

Bopanna, who had won the ITF Men's Futures tournament in Delhi last week, could not show the same form as he went down to a determined Sipaeya while former Davis Cupper Vishal Uppal of Delhi knocked out fifth seeded Rishi Sridhar of Tamil Nadu on an eventful day.

All the other seeded players in the men's section moved into the quarter-finals though second seeded Nitin Kirtane of Maharashtra and seventh seeded Kamala Kannan of Tamil Nadu found the going tough against their spirited opponents.

Barring third seed Sai Jayalakshmi of Maharashtra, who was stretched to three sets, all the other seeded players in the women's section were not really tested as they carved out straight set victories to keep their hopes alive in the Rs 500,000 prize-money event.

Displaying an aggressive brand of tennis, Sipaeya took an hour and a half to send top seed Bopanna crashing out of the tournament with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 verdict.

The Karnataka player had himself to blame for the debacle as he committed a number of unforced errors to allow his rival to take control of the proceedings.