The Indian challenge in the $25,000 Indian Oil Servo ATP Challenger tennis tournament came to an end when Prakash Amritraj bowed out following a 6-7 (6/8), 4-6 defeat to Yves Allegro of Switzerland in the second round, in Delhi on Wednesday.
Gregory Carraz of France, the second seed and winner of last week's Challenger in Bangalore, survived a scare from Dmitry Vlasov of Russia, before emerging a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 winner.
Israeli Jonathan Erlich, who had come through three qualifying rounds, packed enough stamina to win 2-6, 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/4) in two hours and 15 minutes against another Russian,Yuri Schukin, in his fifth consecutive three-set match in the tournament.
Rodolphe Cadart of France too came through a three-setter, winning 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 over German Maxmilian Abel while Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei, who defeated Vijay Kannan in the first round, gave a walkover to Thailand's Danai Udomchoke, citing a knee injury.
The event has turned out to be a disappointing one for home fans as all the Indians made their exit with three more days still left in the tournament. The victories of Karan Rastogi over three higher-ranked opponents in the qualifying rounds might have gladdened the hearts of the hosts but the exit of Davis Cup players Harsh Mankad and Rohan Bopanna was numbing.
Prakash Amritraj, who resides in the US and became eligible to play for India only this month, raised some hopes when he won the first round yesterday but he stood exposed against the 243rd ranked Allegro, whose allround game he was unable to match.
"The surname is not going to help, is it? When you go into the court it is the skill that counts," said Amritraj.
Amritraj gained the initiative when a rusty Allegro dropped serve in the fifth game of the first set. But soon the Swiss hit the right gear and began playing his shots to put the pressure back on his opponent.
For a player whose strength was serve and volley, Amritraj committed too many mistakes at the net. His failure to erect a sound defence at the net was staggering even as Allegro passed him on both sides with ease. He either played a weak volley, setting up smashes for the opponent or lacked the authority to finish off the points.
"I think it was a one off day. Serve and volley is my game and I did well yesterday," Amritraj said.
Allegro also played a couple of strong return winners and his backhand winners also caught the Indian clay-footed. A strong 10th game fetched the break Allegro was looking for and pushed the set into tie-breaker.
But Amritraj's attacking spirit swung the momentum once again in his favour. A double fault by Allegro gave him a 3-1 lead but still the old mistakes were reappearing. After being up 5-3, another weak volley allowed Allegro to equalise at 5-5. The Swiss averted a set point at 5-6 and went up for the first time 7-6. Amritraj then promptly double-faulted to concede the set.
Amritraj failed to arrest the slide in time and soon he was down 1-0 after losing in the first game of the next set. Three such volley errors on consecutive points cost him dearly.
Amritraj had his moments of ascendency, when in the fourth game he executed a superb backhand return and an impulsive lob left Allegro helpless for a 0-30 advantage. But Allegro was serving strong, even his second serves were too much for the Indian.
And once he gained control, Allegro never allowed things to slip.
Vlasov, the winner of the $10,000 event here in January, took the first set even before Carraz could realise what was happening. But the winner of Bangalore event, placed some 100 positions above his opponent on the ATP computer, quickly asserted himself with his mix of baseline shots and sliced backhands in the second set.
