It's a Sai-Sonal summit clash

By Sharda Ugra

MUMBAI, APRIL 14. The final of the $ 10,000 Mumbai ITF Women's Satellite will establish whether the surge by the country's junior girls this week signals a high noon for women's tennis or whether it is, after all, only a proverbial Indian Summer. Third- seeded Sai Jayalakshmy, recently dethroned as National champion but still a very formidable opponent, takes on Sonal Phadke, a teenager headed, it is said, for big things on Saturday.

It is the first $ 10,000 ITF Women's Satellite final for both women; Sai beat top-seed Manisha Malhotra so emphatically that the difference in the WTA rankings now looks merely like empty numbers. Sai, ranked 445 in the world to Manisha's 335, dominated the Mumbai girl 7-5, 6-4 in an hour and 46 minutes at the G.A. Ranade tennis centre here on Friday.

Sonal, who began the week with just a WTA point, launched another insurgent campaign at a seeded player tiring out the No. 4 Satomi Kinjo of Japan in 95 minutes, 7-6 (7-1), 6-3. Kinjo is the second seeded scalp for the 17-year-old in this event and, at No. 471, also the second player beaten inside the WTA 500.

There will be no counting of numbers on Saturday as Sai and Sonal meet with the final acting as an indicator both of the progress made by the younger girl and the resilience of the older. On Friday, the 23-year-old Sai proved she had plenty of spunk as she fought off an indifferent start and a 2-5 deficit to win five straight games in a row against Manisha.

The aggressive, expressive Mumbai girl may appear to have a conventional `big game' with a hard serves and smart volleys; yet, despite her frail build and low-key on-court persona, Sai has a core of steel. Once she found her length today, she dug deep into it, through the rest of the match.

Manisha's game from the back of the court depends largely on what she does with her serve. Today, it came out of her racquet looking in dire need of more attention. Her first serve percentage was very low and she served nine double faults in all. There were seven in the first set, a set that she came so close to winning.

Up 5-2 on a single break, Manisha served for the lead but missed four out of five first serves in the ninth game - she was pushed onto her backfoot by the depth on Sai's returns and produced two forehand errors and two double faults put the No. 3 up at par. Another string of unforced errors in Manisha's next service game helped the Chennai player serve out the set at 7-5 in 61 minutes.

The second set followed much the same pattern of the first with Manisha going up a break early but failing to hold on. With her serve deserting her, Manisha chose to stay on the baseline and spar with Sai, a tactic that can pay off only against a less consistent player.

From the baseline, Sai opened up the court with her sharp angled backhands and pounded the forehand winner down the line regularly. When Manisha tried approaching the net, she found cross court passes whipping in front of her.

From 2-2, Sai won three games in a row to serve for the match in the eighth when she stumbled. But the next time her serve came around, she closed out the match quickly.

The last time these two played, in the 1995 Pune Masters, the match lasted three sets but the end result was the same.

Sonal and Sai had played each other in the $ 5000 ITF Women's Futures circuit at the same venue last year with the older girl winning in two. Sonal is a much-improved player today - in mind and heart - as her match against Kinjo showed.

She stayed in step with Kinjo, a combative all-court player with a small chink in her backhand. Much like her quarterfinal against Megha Vakharia, Kinjo was broken when serving for the set in the ninth game. Unlike Megha, Sonal played an immaculate tie-break winning 7-1, keeping Kinjo on the move and forcing the error.

The Mumbai girl who trailed a break in the second set, fought back by playing aggressive tennis, unafraid to go for the winners when the opportunity presented itself. If she missed, she at least had the consolation of knowing she was playing the right game. Up 2-1, Kinjo lost the four games in a row, giving Sonal the chance to serve out the match in the ninth. She wobbled for the first time in the match, needing four match points to put the fourth-seed out of the competition.

The results:

Singles (semifinals): 3-Sai Jayalakshmy (Ind) bt 1-Manisha Malhotra (Ind) 7-5, 6-4 and Sonal Phadke (Ind) bt 4- Satomi Kinjo (Jpn) 7-6 (7-1) 6-3.

Doubles (semifinals): 2-Rushmi Chakravarthi-Sai Jayalakshmy (Ind) bt Archana Venkatraman-Arthi Venkatraman (Ind) 6-4, 6-1.

Doubles (quarterfinals): 1-Satomi Kinjo (Jpn)-Manisha Malhotra (Ind) bt Sonal Phadke-Nona Wagh (Mah) 6-1, 7-6 (7-0); Nina Egger (Aut)-Marion Walter (Ger) bt 3-Masa Vesenjak-Urska Vesenjak (Slo) 6-2, 6-7 (1-7), 6-3; Archana Venkatraman-Arthi Venkatraman bt 4- Svetla Bozicnik-Maja Mlakar (Slo) 6-7 (9-11), 6-0, 6-3; 2-Rushmi Chakravarthi-Sai Jayalakshmy bt Tara Kanbargimath-Karishma Patel (Ind) 6-2, 6-1.

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