Somdev's impressive run continues

CHENNAI, AUG. 16. With a quartet of in-form players making it to the last four, the boys' singles semifinals of the IOB-MCC National junior (under 18) hardcourt tennis championship promise to provide a lot of excitement on Friday.

On the MCC courts on Thursday, Somdev Verman of the Britannia Amritraj Trust, by far the most impressive player this fortnight, notched up his eighth straight win in 10 days - he won five matches to claim the Adidas championship at the Krishnan Tennis Centre last week - after overcoming a brief nervous spell at the climax as he beat the second seeded Rohan Gajjar of Maharashtra 6-3, 7-5 in the quarterfinals.

Unseeded Somdev, aged 16, will play last year's beaten finalist and fourth seed, P. Ravikrishna of Andhra Pradesh in the semifinals. Ravikrishna blasted away from the back of the court, aiming consistently at R. Arun Prakash's suspect backhand, for a 6-2, 6-1 victory.

The other semifinal features the steadily improving Jaco T. Mathew of BAT and the top seeded Vinod Kumar Sewa from West Bengal. Mathew swept Chatwinder Singh of Chandigarh off the court for a 6-1, 6-2 victory, while Sewa had a job on his hands against the smooth stroking Harshit Sharma (West Bengal) before completing a 6-3, 7-5 victory in an entertaining match.

Somdev is playing with all the confidence that comes with winning day after day after day. The teenager with an impish smile showed tremendous tactical maturity against Gajjar, a player he had beaten handily at KTC last week.

Few players his age on the Indian circuit are as good at shot selection as Somdev is and this virtue is backed up by his willingness to run for everything. Gajjar might have mistaken his opponent today for a human backboard.

In the first set, Somdev broke in the sixth game and that was enough for him to wrap it up. In the second, the players traded two breaks over the first four games before Gajjar, always shaky when questions were asked of him, played a poor volley and then double faulted to lose serve in the seventh game.

Somdev's only blemish came in the 10th game when he served without conviction and let Gajjar back into the set and the match...but only briefly.

For the lanky Maharashtra player failed to cash in there as he sent down two double faults in the next game and finally played a poorly disguised drop which Somdev ran down with relish. When offered the second chance to serve out the match, the BAT teenager made no mistake.

Vinod Kumar Sewa had to raise his game considerably to overcome Harshit Sharma's challenge in the second set when the latter hit some lovely winners from all parts of the court. Down a break, Sewa stepped on the pedal to break back in the 10th and finally closed out the match with another break secured with a forehand winner in the 12th game.

The girls's quarterfinals were rather unexciting for the most part. About the only close contest was the one in which Isha Lakhani of Maharashtra ousted Nandita Chandrasekar of Tamil Nadu, the third seed, 7-6(4), 6-2.

Isha saw Nandita stave off two setpoints in the 12th game but ran away with the tiebreak, opening up a 4-0 lead. From there, it was a romp for Isha.

Samrita Sekar, the top seed, raced past Vimal Ragini of West Bengal 6-1, 6-1, Ankita Bhambri, seeded four, got past Priyanka Parekh (West Bengal) 6-4, 6-1 and Geeta Manohar swept aside Vandana Murali 6-0, 6-2.

The results: Singles: Boys: Somdev Verman bt Rohan Gajjar 6-3, 7- 5; P. Ravikrishna bt R. Arun Prakash 6-2, 6-1; Jaco T. Mathew bt Chatwinder Singh 6-1, 6-2; Vinod Kumar Sewa bt Harshit Sharma 6- 3, 7-5.

Girls: Isha Lakhani bt Nandita Chandrasekar 7-6 (4), 6-2; Samrita Sekar bt Vimal Ragini 6-1, 6- 1; Ankita Bhambri bt Priyanka Parekh 6-4, 6-1; Geeta Manohar bt Vandana Murali 6-0, 6-2.

Doubles:

Boys (quarterfinals): Vikrant Sane and Rohan Gajjar bt Dhrub Kumar and Manoj Kumar Sewa 6-1, 6-4; R.Arun Prakash and Vikram Aditya Menon bt Chinna Kannan and Srikrishna Ramanathan 6-1, 6-2; Jaco T.Mathew and Somdev Verman bt Vijay Bhargav and Vivek Bhakuni 6-0, 6-0; C.Mohanty and Vinod Kumar Sewa bt P.Vishal and P.Chaturvedi 6-7, 6-4, 6-2.

Girls (quarterfinals): Nandita Chandrasekar and Preeti Rao bt Sharanya Pattabi and Nivedita Venkatesh 1-6, 6-4, 6-2; Isha Lakhani and Ankita Bhambri bt Medini Sharma and Nupur Desai 6-2, 6-4; Priyanka Parekh and Ragini Vimal bt M.Kamini and Marutha Devi 6-4, 6-3; Lata Asudani and Rati Kumar bt Sandri Gangotri and Nandini Perumal 7-6, 6-2.

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