The Hindu : Dev Varman in final

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 14, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Dev Varman in final

By Amitabha Das Sharma

Mustafa Ghouse (left) and Vishal Uppal who won the doubles title — Photo:Sushanta Patronobish

KOLKATA, MARCH 13. Somdev Dev Varman warmed Indian hearts with an emphatic 6-2, 6-3 victory over Frenchman Jordanne Doble to march into the title round of the ONGC-ITF Futures tennis tournament at the Saturday Club here on Saturday.

In the summit clash on Sunday, the 19-year old Dev Varman will meet fourth-seeded Yordan Kanev of Bulgaria, who defeated India's Vinod Sridhar 6-3, 6-4 in the other semifinal.

Dev Varman's rise to prominence is significant also for the fact that his employer — ONGC — is the sponsor of the present meet.

The penultimate day of the tournament also saw the duo of Vishal Uppal and Mustafa Ghouse make it a hat-trick of titles after winning the doubles crown. The top seeds inflicted a 6-3, 6-4 defeat on the unseeded Bulgarian pair of Todor Enev and Yordan Kanev in the final to end the day on a perfect note for India after Dev Varman had brightened the morning with his superlative show. The Indian pair, bronze medallists in the Busan Asian Games, thus continued their prolific run following the title triumphs in the Delhi and Chennai legs in the two weeks preceding this meet.

The Indian show would have been complete had Vinod Sridhar been able to match the exploits of his compatriots. "I was feeling very sluggish on the court and could not bring myself to deliver the winners,'' said Sridhar, who has one Futures title under his belt, won a couple of years back. Having accounted for a couple of seeded players, including the second-seeded Orest Tereshchuk of Ukraine on way to the semifinals, Sridhar's showing against Kanev lacked conviction. The "rustiness'' was evident right from the start as he lost his first service game and then the set after being `broken' twice by Kanev. The series of unforced errors continued in the second set and with the Indian's forehand playing truant, the Bulgarian wrapped up the match.

Dev Varman appears to be maturing with every match. And he is none the worse for it. The Chennai-based player took 82 minutes to scalp top-seeded Todor Enev of Bulgaria in the quarterfinals. On Saturday he needed 17 minutes less to annihilate Doble. The Frenchman, naturally attuned to clay, had shown adequate finesse in all his wins till the last four stage but looked a rookie against Dev Varman. The only moment Doble could cherish from the match was `breaking' Dev Varman's serve in the second game. His joy was shortlived as the Indian teenager `broke back' in the very next game and it was no stopping him from there.

Uppal and Ghouse, who advanced when their opponents Tereshchuk and Karim Maamoun (Egypt) retired after winning the first set of the semifinal, put up a greatly improved performance in the final. Both Uppal and Ghouse served well never allowing the opponents any room and earned a crucial `break' in the sixth game to wrap up the first set 6-3. In the second set they again `broke' the Bulgarians in the fifth game and held their own serve to annex the set and the crown in just 63 minutes.

The results:

Singles (semifinals): Somdev Dev Varman (Ind) bt Jordanne Doble (Fra) 6-2, 6-3; 4-Yordan Kanev (Bul) bt Vinod Sridhar (Ind) 6-3, 6-4.

Doubles (final): 1-Vishal Uppal/Mustafa Ghouse (Ind) bt Todor Enev/Yordan Kanev (Bul) 6-3, 6-4.

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