The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Jeevan in line for a double

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Friday, Feb 11, 2005

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Sport - Tennis

Jeevan in line for a double

By Our Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, FEB 10. Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan put himself in line for a double in the SAIL ITF junior grade `III' tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex here on Thursday.

In a battle of the left-handers, the 16-year-old Jeevan served strong, and came up with a few aces on the second serve as well, to overcome the stiff resistance from the temperamental Vaja Uzakov of Uzbekistan 6-3, 7-6(4) in the semifinals.

Capitalising on the sixth-seeded Uzbek's tentative backhand that stood much in contrast to his fierce forehand, the top-seeded Jeevan played an all-round game to make his third singles final on the trot. He had won the title in Kolkata and finished runner-up to Vivek Shokeen in Delhi last week.

It was the Uzbek who broke Jeevan first in the third game, but Jeevan swung the flow in his favour with breaks in the sixth and eighth games. Jeevan was particularly impressive when he pressed hard to convert the fifth breakpoint in that eighth game. He served out the set in the next game at love.

Jeevan looked to be on song as he broke Vaja in the third game of the second set, but the Uzbek fought back to be serving for the second set following breaks in the sixth and eighth games.

However, Jeevan smacked rousing winners to break the Uzbek in the ninth game and saved a setpoint in the next game to eventually force the tie-break.

The Chennai lad raced to a 5-2 lead thanks to the erratic ways of the Uzbek, but Vaja smashed two winners to stay afloat. Jeevan came up with two good second serves to wind up the show.

The other Indian lad in the semifinal, Jeevan's doubles partner, Vivek Shokeen could not serve hard because of a sore shoulder, and thus could not fight long against the third-seeded Xiao-Peng Lai of Hong Kong.

Vivek, however, shouldered his doubles campaign well as he partnered Jeevan to win two matches to make the final later in the day.

In the girls section, Madura Ranganathan was unable to change the flow of her quarterfinal match against Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium, and failed to win a game in the second set this morning, after having lost the first set at love the previous day. Madura had beaten Yanina in three sets last week, but the Belgian girl was in roaring here, though she could not win a ticket to the final later against the Swiss lass Martina Lautenschlager.

Another spell of rain meant that two doubles quarterfinals could not be completed in the girls section. Weather permitting there will be three rounds of doubles apart from the singles finals on the morrow.

The results: Boys (semifinals): Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Vaja Uzakov (Uzb) 6-3, 7-6(4); Xiao Peng Lai (Hkg) bt Vivek Shokeen 6-2, 6-3.

Doubles (semifinals): Vivek Shokeen and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Kinshuk Sharma and Tariq Jacob 6-0, 6-3; Vaja Uzakov (Uzb) and Stas Zhuravski (Rus) bt Sumit Prakash Gupta and Kaushik Raju 4-6, 6-1, 6-3; Quarterfinals: Vivek and Jeevan bt Rikus Devilliers and Brad Williams (RSA) 6-4, 6-2; Kinshuk and Tariq w.o. Christian Hodel (Rom) and Bassam Beidas (Lib); Sumit and Kaushik bt Krishna Karsolia and Siddharth Alapati 5-3 (retired); Vaja and Stas bt Neil Rajpal (Can) and Kaushik Das 6-3, 6-1.

Girls (semifinals): Amina Rakhim (Kaz) bt Laura Loana Andrei (Rom) 7-5, 6-2; Martina Lautenschlager (Sui) bt Yanina Wickmayer (Bel) 7-5, 6-4; Quarterfinals: Laura Loana Andrei bt Else Potgieter (RSA) 6-1, 6-1; Amina Rakhim bt Dilyara Saidkhodjaeva (Uzb) 5-7, 6-3, 6-4; Yanina Wickmayer bt Madura Ranganathan 6-0, 6-0; Martina Lautenschlager bt Mariya Malkhasyan (Ukr) 6-4, 6-3.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Madura Ranganathan and Sandhya Nagaraj bt Poojashree Venkatesh and Varsha Shivshankar 6-2, 7-5; Dilyara Saidkhodjayeva (Uzb) and Ulia Parasyuk (Rus) bt Mariya Malkhasyan and Iryna Khatsko (Ukr) 7-5, 6-3.

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