Delight turns despair for Manoj

By S. Dinakar

PUNE, OCT. 31. The thin white line. It separates the winner from the loser. For some it represents hope. For others...it is the line of death.

Manoj Mahadevan, leading 5-2, and a matchpoint up in the decider, unleashes a big serve, and then breaks into a celebration, assuming he has delivered an ace.

But then, the chair umpire quickly points out that the ball is just wide. Exactly, the kind of break, Manoj's Polish Australian opponent, Jurek Stasiak, seeded eight, needs.

He turns the game around and emerges a 3-6, 7-6 (8-6), 7-5 winner in the most engrossing match of the day to enter the quarterfinals of the MSLTA-ITF men's Futures tournament at the Deccan Gymkhana Courts, here, on Wednesday.

Moments later, another court, another scene...Israel's second seeded Eyal Erlich unwinds to produce a rasping back-hand down- the-line, that brooks no answer from fancied Indian Prahlad Srinath.

This time, the ball lands in the right side of the line. Erlich, an accomplished player at this level, cannot quite hide his emotions, even as the pragmatic Srinath, the winner at Mumbai and Indore, walks away losing a keen battle 6-7 (4-7), 3- 6.

Not an unexpected result in terms of seedings, however, certainly a minor surprise if we take Srinath's blazing form into account. The setback marked the end of a dream run for the Indian.

Well, it was a dramatic kind of day with Lior Dahan (seeded 1), Syed Fazaluddin (3), Abdul-Hamid Makhkamov (4), Rohan Bopanna, Sunil Kumar and Michal Varsanyi also entering the last eight stage.

Two seeds fell by the wayside as well. Promising Indian Sunil Kumar knocked out his fifth seeded countryman Nitin Kirtane 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, while Bopanna, a finalist in the earlier two Futures events, produced an explosive performance, serving rocks, volleying well and returning with power to blow away South Africa's Ciaran Moore, seeded seven, 6-2, 6-0.

Coming back to the Manoj-Stasiak duel that lasted two hours and 31 minutes, it was a contest the Indian should have pocketed, but then closing out close matches has been a major stumbling block for the Chennai lad.

Manoj, breaking Stasiak in the eighth game, served out the first set, but, with both players holding serves, the second set predictably entered the tie-breaker where the Indian had a match- point at 6-5 on Stasiak's serve following a rasping forehand volley.

However, Stasiak, levelled things with a deep second serve and then went on to win the thrilling set with Manoj putting a back- hand volley wide.

In the decider, Manoj, broke Stasiak in the second game, coming up with some fine returns, and though the Indian was not quite serving at his best - he could not get enough first serves in - managed to hold.

Soon, it was the moment of truth for Manoj as he lined up to serve. He was just one point away from victory in the eighth game.

At Indore, he had failed to cash in on a match point and ended up losing to Michal Varsanyi in the second round. Would it be different this time around? We come back to the thin white line and tales than often hang on slender threads.

Manoj failed in his bid, and Stasiak, essentially a counter- puncher, began finding his `targets', even as the Indian struggled to rule at the net, given the speed at which the ball was travelling from his opponent's racquet.

The Polish-Australian broke Manoj in the 12th game, pouncing on the Indian's second serves, and kept his composure in the next game. Indeed, Stasiak held his serve without too many problems, clinching a gruelling, at times, bitter match - there was a little `war of words' between the player - in the process.

For Srinath it was a story of missed chances. The Indian, covering the court with effortless ease, and coming up with those stinging back-hand winners, achieved an early break in the third game, but Erlich, a versatile all-court player, pulled the chestnuts out of fire in the nick of time, breaking back in the 10th game, when Srinath was serving for the first set.

The set entered the tie-breaker where Erlich achieved two early mini-breaks, and despite a minor come-back by Srinath, took it 7- 4. A moody player, the Israeli was in the right kind of mood on Wednesday.

And he dominated over an off-colour Srinath in the second set breaking in the fifth and ninth games, to book his place in the last eight stage. Interestingly, the Israeli was a doubtful starter for the match, down with a viral infection on Tuesday night.

The Nitin Kirtane-Sunil Kumar duel went along similar lines with the smooth stroking Chandigarh lad holding his nerve in a close first set tie-breaker against an experienced, canny rival, at least at this level.

And in the second, Sunil achieved service breaks in the third, fifth and seventh games - Nitin pulled one back in the sixth - to emerge a worthy winner. ``Come on, long way to go,'' Nitin goaded himself on midway through the second set, but this was a day when his younger rival had all the answers.

Sunil possesses a fine service return and is strong off the ground too, but has to clearly work on his ability to volley. However, he is young, and had interesting possibilities.

The results:

Singles (second round): 1-Lior Dahan (Isr) bt Vijay Kannan (Ind) 6-4, 6-2; Sunil Kumar (Ind) bt 5-Nitin Kirtane (Ind) 7-6 (7-2), 6-2; 4-Abdul Hamid Makhkamov (Uzb) bt Kamala Kannan (Ind) 6-3, 6- 0; Michal Varsanyi (Svk) bt Rishi Sridhar (Ind) 7-5, 6-3; Rohan Bopanna (Ind) bt 7-Ciaran Moore (RSA) 6-2, 6-0; 3-Syed Fazaluddin (Ind) bt Kedar Tembe (Ind) 6-3, 6-1; 8- Jurek Stasiak (Pol) bt Manoj Mahadevan (Ind) 3-6, 7-6 (8-6), 7-5; 2-Eyal Erlich (Isr) bt Prahlad Srinath (Ind) 7-6 (4), 6-3.

Doubles (second round): Lior Dahan & Eyal Erlich (Isr) bt Kedar Shah & Sunil Kumar (Ind) 6-4, 6-0; Manoj Mahadevan & Rishi Sridhar (Ind) bt Tomas Hladil & Tomas Janda (Cze) 6-3, 7-5; Prahlad Srinath & Ajay Ramaswami (Ind) bt Nitin & Sandeep Kirtane (Ind) 6-1, 6-3; Deri Meir & Elvan Dooyev (Isr) bt Roger Krajovic & Jurek Stasiak (Pol) 7-5, 6-3.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : The good work must continue at the senior level