TIMES OF INDIA - Tuesday, Oct 22, 2002 - NILANJAN DATTA

NEW DELHI: The umpire's quaint call of 'silence please!' does not really work here. It loses its way in the cacophony emanating from the construction site, right by the courtside, if not in the general mela atmosphere of the place.

But then, the spirit of the DSCL national championships is so intoxicating that no one seems to be bothered: the players happily go about their business of winning or losing. The opening day of the hardcourt championships at the DLTA Complex saw the first upset: national grasscourt champion Manoj Mahadevan, seeded 5th, meekly surrendered to Pune's Kedar Tembe 4-6, 6-7 (5).

Tembe, whose penchant for baseline play is attracting a little attention, is though elated. "I had earlier beaten Bopanna (Rohan) and Amanjot (Singh) in the juniors," he says. He too blames lack of sponsorship for his inconsistent career, rather than the construction work next door. Top-seeded Sunil Kumar Sipaeya subdued S Sancheti without exerting much, winning 6-2, 6-1.

But then, there was somebody who was getting distracted by the noise: the talented Sourabh Singh. The National Games champion went down to a focussed Ajay Ramaswamy 3-6, 1-6 and promptly asked: "What's that racket in the background", even as another wailing noise erupted from the site.

Results: (all singles):

Men: Sunil Sipaeya b S Sancheti 6-2, 6-1; Ajay Ramaswamy b Saurabh Singh 6-3, 6-1; Somdev Verman b Vishal Punna 6-3, 7-5, Rohan Gajjar b Asutosh Singh 6-2, 6-3; Amanjot Singh b C D Ajay 6-2, 6-2; Sandeep Kirtane b R Udaykumar 6-2, 6-2; Tembe Kedar b Manoj Mahadevan 6-4, 7-6 (4); Nitin Kirtane b Nipun Gupta 6-4, 6-2.

Women: Sasha Abraham b Medini Sharma 3-6, 6-3, 6-0; A Venkatraman b S Sai 6-2, 6-0; Redhini Parekh b K Pooja 6-3, 7-5; Radhika Tulpule b Nandini Perumal 6-2, 6-0.

Boys U-18: Dhruv Kumar b Varun Giri 7-6 (5), 6-3; M V Ranjit b J Bishnoi 3-6, 6-4, 7-5; G Arjun b J Vardhan 7-6 (4), 6-3; S Dhaka b Tushar Garg 6-0, 6-2; P Chaturvedi b Manoj Seva 6-2, 6-4; Rupesh Roy b A Medhekar 7-5, 6-2; Arun Prakash b Vikas Punna 6-4, 6-0; S Patil b S Kohli 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-0.

Girls U-18: S Goutham b R Vimal 6-4, 6-1; S Dhawan b Alice Joy 7-5, 6-3; L Assudani b M Paritala 6-0; 6-4; S Sekhar b V Chettri 7-6 (8), 6-2; Isha Lakhani b N Jille 6-0, 6-1; P Goswami b P Shravan 6-3, 6-1; P Rao b N Venkatesh 6-0, 7-5; Jaori Raj b P Sharanya 6-2, 6-3; J Afreew b Neha Rana 6-3, 7-6 (1); M Kamini b R Ormila 6-4, 6-3; S Sashidharan b Sagarika Phadke 6-2, 6-4; Poonam Reddy b Priyanka Mehta 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.