Nirupama loses in first round

Nirupama Vaidyanathan lost to Miriam Schnitzer of Germany 4-6, 7-6(10-8), 0-6 in the first round of the $100,000 G H Bronx Classic being played at Bronx, the United States.

After losing the first set, Vaidyanathan came back and won the second set in a tie-break. She, however, was outplayed in third set as Schnitzer recorded her first opening round victory of the year.

"What a relief," said Schnitzer after the match. "Three times I was beaten in the first round in Austria and in Casablanca in my first match."

The Indian felt the defeat was a wake-up call ahead of the US Open.

"This is my first tournament in the US this year, and since I hope to make it into the main draw of the US Open, maybe this is an omen," she said.

Nirupama had played in the qualifying rounds of the US Open three times, but only made it to the second round once. She has also played in four qualifiers at Wimbledon, only getting past the first round in 1999.

The 24-year-old Schnitzer, who missed two months after injuring tendons in her right hand, moved to 118th in the world rankings after starting out at No. 840 seven years ago when she graduated from high school.

The Indian girl, ranked 183 on the WTA lisiting, came through the qualifers to make it to the main draw. She defeated Valentina Sassi of Italy 5-7, 7-6(4), 7-5 in the final of the qualifier. Sassi had upset top seed Anabelle Ellwood of Australia in the first round.

Nirupama defeated Bryanne Stewart of Australia 6-2, 7-5 in the second and Ansley Cargill of the United States 6-1, 6-3 in the first.

Nirupama will also be playing doubles with Yuka Yoshida of Japan. The duo is unseeded and will face Dawn Buth of the United States and Natalie Grandin of South Africa in the first round.

They are placed in the lower half of the draw and likely to face the second seeds Lubomira Bacheva of Bulgaria and Laurence Courtois of Belgium in the quarter-final.

In the final of the men's singles qualifiers, Syed Fazaluddin lost to the top seed Matthew Breen of Australia 3-6, 1-6.

Another Indian, Mustafa Ghouse lost in the first round of the $15,000 Great Britain F7 futures being played at Cumberland, Great Britain.

After a good show in the qualifiers, the Indian lost to wildcard entrant, 17-year-old Mathew Smith of Great Britain 4-6, 6-7(4).

At the $10,000 Thailand satellite in Nonthaburi, Rushmi Chakravarti defeated Angelique Widjaja of Indonesia 7-6(3), 7-5 to enter the second round.

Widjaja is the current junior Wimbledon champion and world No 3 on the ITF listing.

Rushmi entered the second round for the second week in a row (she had beaten Megha Vakharia in the first round last week in Thailand).

Sai Jayalakshmi's poor form continued as she was upset by Monthika Anuchan of Thailand 6-1, 6-2 in the first round.

Other Indians, Megha Vakaria and Lisa Pereira went down in the first round. Megha lost to Chao Chiao-Han of Taiwan 1-6, 0-6, while Lisa Pereira lost to Ataka Miyako of Japan 2-6, 2-6.

At the $10,000 Koksijde satellite in Belgium Sonal Phadke was upset 1-6, 2-6 by qualifiier Yvonne Muesberger of Australia in the first round.

Another Indian, Karishma Patel, who came through the qualifier, also lost 2-6, 4-6 to second seed Nicole Melch of Austria.

In the doubles, Sonal and Karishma lost to Gabriela Velasco and Rosa Sitja of Spain 0-6, 3-6 in the first round.