The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Venkat Iyer outplays Ashwin

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Friday, Jan 12, 2007
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Venkat Iyer outplays Ashwin

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Venkat Iyer came up with a robust all-round game to outplay the second-seeded Ashwin Vijayaraghavan 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the Adidas ITF grade `II' junior tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Thursday.

The 15-year-old Venkat, brother of national junior champion Tara Iyer, served with intensity and stroked with purpose to leave little room for recovery for his opponent after getting off to a smooth start.

Venkat, playing his maiden semifinals in the ITF junior circuit, will take on the sixth-seeded Jerzy Janowicz of Poland who overwhelmed the champion of last week, the third-seeded Alexey Tikhonov of Russia for the loss of two games.

The other Indian boys could not make the last four stage. Yuki Bhambri and Vijayant Malik went down in three sets each in contrasting style.

Too hot to handle

The 14-year-old Yuki, a semifinalist last week, found the top-seeded Rifat Biktyakov of Uzbekistan too hot to handle after the first set. It was a brave effort from the wiry Delhi lad, as Yuki saved three setpoints in all in the ninth and tenth games of the first set to eventually take it in the tie-break.

Yuki broke his opponent in the first game of the second set, but lacked the physical energy to continue his fight any further, and managed to win only one of the next 13 games.

The finalist last week, Vijayant Malik recovered from an indifferent start to make it a contest against Kittiphong Wachiramanowong of Thailand, but lacked the conviction in his game to clinch the issue at the climax.

There was better news from the girls' section, as Poojashree Venkatesh and Shivika Burman made the semifinals.

The results (quarterfinals):

Boys: Rifat Biktyakov (Uzb) bt Yuki Bhambri 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-0; Kittiphong Wachiramanowong (Tha) bt Vijayant Malik 6-2, 4-6, 6-2; Jerzy Janowicz (Pol) bt Alexey Tikhonov (Rus) 6-2, 6-0; Venkat Iyer bt Ashwin Vijayaraghavan 6-2, 6-2.

Girls: Poojashree Venkatesh bt Anastasiya Vasylyeva (Ukr) 6-2, 2-6, 6-3; Yuliya Goloborodko (Ukr) bt Janaki Gunuganti 6-3, 7-5; Shivika Burman bt Khunpak Issara (Tha) 6-1, 6-4; Aleksandra Kolesnichenko (Uzb) bt Nadia Lalami (Mor) 7-5, 2-6, 6-3.

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