Shruti surprises fifth-seeded Surina

By Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI, OCT. 31. When she plays at her best, Shruti Dhawan is a delight to watch. The 18-year-old Chandigarh girl was on song as she knocked out the fifth-seeded Surina de Beer of South Africa 4-0, 4-1, 4-2 in the first round of the $ 25,000 ITF women's circuit tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Tuesday.

Playing a flawless game, Shruti threw the net-rushing Surina off balance with her impressive passing shots that were fired with remarkable accuracy. The South African had a good serve and volley game, but her erratic returns coupled with her injudicious approach cost her the match, as Shruti cruised home in 46 minutes.

Beating the 318th ranked Surina has been one of the best performances for Shruti on her comeback into the professional circuit after a long lay-off caused by a back injury. Her groundstrokes, hit firmly with a doublefisted grip are the strong point of the 759th ranked Shruti, and she added good serves this day to overwhelm her opponent.

``I had no idea as to how she plays. In the second game, when she followed her serves, I thought `oh, I am playing a serve and volleyer.' But I didn't think about the result, and kept playing my game,'' said Shruti, quite pleased with her effort, which assured her four WTA points including a quality point for beating an opponent ranked in the 251 to 500 region.

In fact, Shruti played her shots so well that she exposed the fragile backhand of the South African. But the commendable aspect of Shruti's game this day was the fact that she did not lose focus even for a minute in the whole exercise.

``Earlier, when I played well, I used to start thinking about whom I would play in the next round etc. Today, I didn't think about anything and just played each point,'' said Shruti, revealing the rapid strides she was making in terms of achieving total concentration in a match.

Shruti will be playing the 355th ranked Eva Fislova of Slovakia in the second round. Having had a taste of the forehand of the Slovakian during the doubles outing, Shruti would be ready to counter her.

Joining Shruti into the pre-quarterfinals were two other Indians, Sai Jayalakshmy and Sonal Phadke. The 23-year-old Sai was at her confident best in driving the 720th ranked Maja Mlakar off the court for the loss of four games.

The big-serving Mlakar with an explosive forehand, started well, taking a 2-0 lead with a break in the first game. However, the Russian was as erratic as she was in the last week when she lost the singles semifinals tamely in the $ 10,000 event. Thus, Sai had to keep her shots within the lines, and the 423rd ranked Indian was quite competent in doing so.

Sai will meet the third-seeded Katarina Daskovic of Yugoslavia, who recovered from a 0-3 start against Sheethal Goutham to win in straight sets, dropping a solitary game thereafter.

Another talented girl emerging from the junior brigade, Sonal Phadke showed the gains of coming through the qualifying event, as she stopped the national champion, Rushmi Chakravarthi in her stride with a 4-2, 4-1, 4-0 triumph.

Sonal played her compact strokes with a lot of punch, and the 493rd ranked Rushmi was unable to match her patience. ``I was patchy last week, as I had been shuttling from hard to clay and back to hard courts. Playing the qualifying event helped me a lot to tune my game. I was very consistent with my strokes, and she was quite inconsistent,'' said the 542nd ranked Sonal.

The Mumbaikar assured that she would not be overconfident in negotiating the challenge from her doubles partner and lucky- loser Harsimran Kaur in the pre-quarterfinals.

``I was tired after so many matches in the last three weeks. I did not have any strength to stay out there and try anything,'' said Rushmi, who has played 23 matches in the last three weeks, including 10 in the doubles event.

While the 24th match was the straw on the back of the camel for Rushmi, Sonal did not complain as she opened the draw for herself with a timely effort, that has already assured her of four WTA points and $ 500. Going by form, Sonal should be able to make the quarterfinals and set up a clash with Urska Vesenjak whom she has beaten earlier this year.

The left-handed Urska was at her grunting best in pulling past the 407th ranked Caroline Raba of Germany. Urska showed her fighting spirit in the second set in which she recovered from a 1-3 start, and saved five set points in the tie- break to eventually win in straight sets.

Urska's twin sister, Masa was unable to answer the challenge from the seventh-seeded Ekaterina Kozhokina of Russia, and lost in straight sets. The tall and lean Russian played her shots with a lot of flourish to skid the winners past Masa on the fast courts.

There was a dramatic twist in the match between Andrea van den Hurk of the Netherlands and Dominika Luzarova of the Czech Republic, as the former recovered from a two set deficit to win in five sets.

Andrea was quite fluent at the end, after having warded off the danger of elimination in the third set, when she saved two breakpoints in the fourth game to be on par.

Actually, the 21-year-old Dutch saved four gamepoints in the fifth game and converted the second breakpoint to wrench the initiative. She held serve in the sixth game despite sending down two of her three doublefaults in the match. The 18-year-old Luzarova lost both her concentration and confidence after that and slithered down to defeat.

lThe results: Singles (first round): Shruti Dhawan bt Surina de Beer (RSA) 4-0, 4-1, 4-2; Katarina Daskovic (Yug) bt Sheethal Goutham 5-3, 4-0, 4-1; Sai Jayalakshmy bt Maja Mlakar (Slo) 4-2, 4-1, 4-1; Andrea van den Hurk (Ned) bt Dominika Luzarova (Cze) 2- 4, 1-4, 4-2, 4-1, 4-1; Ekaterina Kozhokina (Rus) bt Masa Vesenjak (Slo) 4-2, 5-3, 4-1; Urska Vesenjak (Slo) bt Caroline Raba (Ger) 4-0, 5-4 (9-7), 4-2; Sonal Phadke bt Rushmi Chakravarthi 4-2, 4- 1, 4-0.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Rushmi Chakravarthi and Sai Jayalakshmy bt Sheethal Goutham and Shalini Thakur 5-4 (7-4), 4- 1, 4-2; Harsimran Kaur and Sonal Phadke bt Lakshmi Van der Wart (Ned) and Jahnavi Sunderarajan 5-3 4-1, 2-4, 5-4 (7-5); Ekaterina Kozhokina (Rus) and Eva Krejcova (Cze) bt Archana Venkataraman and Arthi Venkataraman 4-0, 4-0, 4-1.

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