04 October,2010 11:28 AM IST | | Agencies
India were off to a perfect start in the tennis event of Commonwealth Games with Rohan Bopanna demolishing Robert Buyinza of Uganda in straight sets in the men's singles event here today.
Bopanna was too good for a player, who has just one ranking point in the ATP charts, as he completed a 6-1 6-4 win in just one hour and two minutes in the first round.
The tall Karnataka-lad is scheduled to play a second match today when he pairs up with Nirupama Sanjeev against top seeded Australians Paul Hanley and Rodionova Anastasia.
Bopanna today dropped 114 places in the ranking chart to be at 587 but he was coming into the event after playing a crucial role in the Davis Cup tie against Brazil and was hardly troubled by the African player.
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With two break of serves, Bopanna raced to a comfortable 5-1 lead in the opening set and sealed the lead in just 21 minutes.
Buyinza, ranked 1601, overcame the initial jitters and started to serve well in the second set but unforced errors continued to flow from his racquet.
After missing four break points, Bopanna converted the fifth to get his first break -- in the fifth game -- to be up 3-2 in the second set.
He had a chance to close the set in the ninth game but Buyinza played his best tennis to save that point.
However, he could not stop the Indian from serving out the match in the next game.
But there was hardly any crowd to celebrate Bopanna's win at the Centre Court.
India's Poojashree Venkatesh, Rushmi Chakravarthy and the the mixed doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Leander Paes are also scheduled to play later in the day
