Rastogi pulls off shock win

Wild card Karan Rastogi lighted up the Indian sky with an unbelievable upset victory over Thiago Alves of Brazil, ranked 106 in the world, to storm into the second round of the Chennai Open ATP tennis tournament on Tuesdaynight.

In a giant killing act, the 20-year-old Indian, ranked more than 200 places below his rival, held his nerves to bring up an impressive 6-3 6-4 victory.

He frightened the Indian supporters in surrendering the initiative from a strong position of 4-1 in the second set and allowed the rival to come to terms for a 4-all scoreline.

However, he now has a Herculean task in the second round as he runs into world No. 2 Rafael Nadal, who beat Rainer Schuettler in a first round match on the Centre Court 6-4 6-2.

Rastogi, who won two Futures titles last season, including the one in Delhi last week, was a bit slow to start off but came back strongly in the baseline duel that swung both ways with the rivals trading breaks in the absence of strong first serves.

First Published: Jan 02, 2007 22:31 IST