Megha, Isha make the main draw

By Sharda Ugra

MUMBAI, APRIL 10. It is hardly a story that will run and run but the country's top two under-16s will savour the moment all the same. On a still, scorching day Megha Vakharia and Isha Lakhani entered the main draw of the $10,000 Mumbai Women's Satellite on their home courts at the G.A. Ranade Tennis Centre. Vakharia and Lakhani are that awkward age - bang in the middle of their teens when their pure talent is no longer enough and the effects of all their work and training are far away from coming to fruition.

Today though, the burdens of expectation flung away into some corner of their locker room, Lakhani and Vakharia played freely, faced with home competition which could neither challenge nor conquer them. For left-handed Vakharia, the country's No. 1 under-16 player, Saiswapna Ramakrishnan was swept aside with the loss of a single game; it was Lakhani's opponent whose presence alone must have been a sobering lesson to the small but squarely built Mumbai girl. Lakhani scored a 6-3, 6-2 straight set win over Chandigarh's Shruti Dhawan, a senior National semifinalist not so long ago when she was considered to be the leader of her pack.

This was Shruti's first tournament in ten months and it showed. The elder girl had only returned to hitting a tennis ball two weeks ago and today she struggled to find a grove, mixing well- struck clean winners with plenty of unforced errors. Ten months ago, she had hit a rich lode of form, on a ITF Women's four-week Futures circuit, winning the Masters leg. Pushing herself over a month had hurt her back, and that has taken a while to recover.

She is still not the fearsome tennis player she used to be - or indeed, could go on to be - but her presence on court alone today should be both warning and inspiration to those who hope to take over from the current generation. The best intentions and best preparation are no defence against the worst kind of luck.

After such a bleak period though, fortune did hand out the strapping Chandigarh player a huge favour today as she squeezed into the main draw thanks to the pull out of the second- seeded Slovenian Andrea Masarykova. Masarykova's withdrawal meant that the seedings had to be altered and the first round match-ups for all seeds barring Manisha Malhotra, changed. Shruti will face the fourth-seeded Satomi Kinjo in the first round tomorrow.

The new draw has done wild card Radhika Tulpule no favours though as she plays the formidable Urska Vesanjak tomorrow instead of Masarykova. But Sai Jayalakshmy the No. 3- seed who had drawn the 15-year-old hard-hitting Croat Antonia Matic, is not granted a reprieve against her compatriot Isha Chopra. Matic as the new No. 8 seed will play qualifier Miase Sakai of Japan. Sixth seeded Rushmi Chakravarthy now meets Marion Walter of Germany rather than qualifier Swiss Lucia Tallo and Archana Venkatraman, the only other seeded Indian, plays Ana Sismondini of Spain in the first round.

The Bangalore player should have some idea of her opponent's weaknesses and strengths as she teamed up with sister Archana to drive Sismondini and her partner Miyako Ataka to desperation in a doubles match this afternoon. The Venkatramans won a prolonged first round encounter 6-3, 6-3 as all the seeded teams went through to the quarterfinals.

Singles seedings: 1. Manisha Malhotra (Ind) 2. Urska Vesenjak (Slo) 3. Sai Jayalakshmy (Ind) 4. Satomi Kinjo (Jpn) 5. Rushmi Chakravarthi (Ind) 6. Keiko Temishi (Jpn) 7. Archana Venkatraman (Ind) 8. Antonia Matic (Cro).

The results:

Doubles first round (seedings in prefix): 1-Manisha Malhotra (Ind)-Satomi Kinjo (Jpn) bt Geeta Manohar (Ind)-Keiko Tameishi (Jpn) 6-2, 6-0; Sonal Phadke- Nona Wagh (Ind) bt Shalini Thakur- Shruti Dhawan (Ind) 7-5, 6-1; 3-Masa Vesenjak-Urska Vesenjak (Slo) bt Lucia Tallo (Sui)-Antonia Matic (Cze) 6-2, 6-1; Marion Walter (Ger)-Nina Egger (Aut) bt Misae Sakai (Jpn)-Jenifer Schmidt (Aut) 6-3, 6-1; Archana Venkatraman-Aarti Venkatraman (Ind) bt Ana Sismondini (Esp)- Miyako Ataka (Jpn) 6-3, 6-3; 4- Svetla Bozitnik-Maja Mlakar (Slo) bt Sricharanya Thiagarajan- Saiswapna Ramakrishnan (Ind) 6-2, 6-3; Tara Kanbargimath-Karishma Patel (Ind) bt Nikita Bharadwaj-Isha Chopra 6-0, 6-4; 2-Rushmi Chakravarthi-Sai Jayalakshmy (Ind) bt Karolina Sadaj (Pol)- Radhika Tulpule (Ind) 6-3, 6-4.

Singles final qualifying round: Isha Lakhani (Ind) bt Shruti Dhawan (Ind) 6-3, 6-2; Misae Sakai (Jpn) bt Alejandra Ynclan (Esp) 6-1, 6-1; Lucia Tallo (Sui) bt Vishupreetham Mahalingam (Ind) 6-3, 6-0; Megha Vakharia (Ind) bt Sai Swapna Ramakrishna (Ind) 6-1, 6-0.

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