Arvind Parmar to take on Kafelnikov

As the 197th seed at Wimbledon, it's not going to be easy for Arvind Parmar against the seventh seed. But this surprise Gujarati might yet pull off a miracle in his match against Yevgeny Kafelnikov on Thursday.

And it could just be the court as much as his own game that could be on his side.

Sheer grit saw Parmar overcome Brazilian Andre Sa in his match on Tuesday. Parmar came down with cramps, confessed later he thought of giving up, but prevailed finally over Sa.

Parmar was down with cramps in the fourth set and lost the set. But courage saw him win the final set 8-6. He won despite visibly cramped movements against his wily opponent. He saved a match-point at 6-5 with a second-serve ace before going on to win.

Parmar will have to overcome more than cramps on Thursday. His Russian opponent is on a high with tennis this season. After making it to the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 1995 and to the semi-finals in the doubles in 1994 and 1995, Kafelnikov has gone on to play good steady tennis, picking up about $20 million prize-money along the way.

Parmar knows what he's up against. "I've got nothing to lose now in the second match," he said after beating the Brazilian. "Just go out there and try my hardest again."

But Parmar believes he has a better chance in the second round than any of the other British players. "Kafelnikov isn't a grass court player. Don't get me wrong, he plays very well on the surface. I suppose if you just look down at each player on grass, I suppose Kafelnikov is in third place. But he can still play. You know, it's going to be a very tough match."

But the British-born Parmar is determined. "I'm not going to go in there thinking he's going to just wipe me off the court or anything because, you know, I can hold my own."

Much will depend which court the two play on. Kafelnikov has always had problems with Court 1 - all his losses in recent years at Wimbledon have been on Court 1. Getting them to play might mean advantage Parmar.

"If they schedule me on the Court 1, I will definitely prepare myself for very hard and difficult match," Kafelnikov says.