Wednesday, Mar 13, 2002
Wednesday, Mar 13, 2002 |
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Tennis
By K. Keerthivasan
CHENNAI, MARCH 12. Vijay Kannan made an unimpressive start to his campaign in the Rexona-Deo ITF men's Futures tennis championship at the SDAT-Tennis Stadium here on Tuesday. The National hardcourt champion, a wild card entrant, laboured to a 6-4, 6-3 triumph over lucky loser Febi Widhiyanto of Indonesia in the first round. Febi had taken the place of second seed Nir Welgreen (Israel) who failed to turn up for his match against Vijay. Though the scoreline would suggest an easy outing, it was hardly so. Febi, a player with a relatively good all-court game and deceptive backhand, did trouble the National champion. Despite racing to a 4-2 lead with a break in the first game, Vijay struggled with his backhand chops and approach shots. This cost him the eighth game on his serve as he lost three consecutive points. He hit a forehand wide, dumped a backhand chip-and-charge shot into the net and then netted a backhand overhead volley. But the 21-year-old, employed with the Southern Railway, hit back to take the next game with some fine passing shots - easily the highlight of his game today. Vijay comfortably served out the 10th game to clinch the first set. Beginning to volley with a touch of assurance, Vijay cruised to a 4-0 lead in the second set. And serving for the match at 5-2, Vijay got drowned in a pool of errors on both flanks to lose his serve. He was in danger of losing the next game too on Febi's serve, but did not miss the opportunity on his second matchpoint as Febi served a doublefault, his 10th of the match. The encounter raised questions about Vijay's poor mobility and lack of aggression. Vijay, however, shrugged off his mediocre performance, saying that a win was a win and he would like to take one match at a time. ``I had lost to him (Febi) in a junior-level tourney when he was a top player,'' said Vijay. The other first round contest which evoked interest was the one between India's Prahlad Srinath and fourth-seeded Dutch Fred Jr. Hemmes. Srinath did well to level scores after being 0-3 down in the first set. The hard-hitting Dutch was, however, getting impatient. Srinath, calm as ever, broke Fred Jr.'s serve in the crucial 11th game with backhand crosscourt and forehand return winners. He then held his serve easily in the 12th game to pocket the first set 7-5. Fred Jr. then decided not to continue owing to dehydration. ``Apart from the weather, it was the bad air, the pollution. He is also sick,'' said Hemmes, Fred's Jr. father-cum-coach. Big serving Indian and eighth seed Rohan Bopanna cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 first round victory over Alexander Sikanov (Russia). Also moving up was fellow Indian Vishal Uppal who overcame Eliran Dooyev of Israel 6-4, 6-2. However, National grasscourt champion Mustafa Ghouse, who reached the semifinals of the ITF $ 10,000 tourney in Colombo recently, was a casualty as he conceded the match to China's Yu Jr. Wang after trailing 0-5 in the first set. ``I was not feeling well for the last few days. In fact, I have fever. The draw was good, but what to do?'' said Ghouse. Top-seeded Roberto Alvarez of Argentina and France's Jordanne Doble, seeded three, pulled out citing injuries. While the top seed has a shoulder problem, the Frenchman was suffering from a hamstring trouble. Taking their places were Slovakian Marian Leysek and Kamala Kannan of India respectively. The results (first round): Singles: Vijay Kannan (Ind) bt Febi Widhiyanto (Ina) 6-4, 6-3; 8-Rohan Bopanna bt Alexander Sikanov (Rus) 6-3, 6-2; Jalal Chafai-Alaoui (Mar) bt Ben-Qiang Zhu (Chn) 6-3, 6-2; Yu Jr. Wang (Chn) bt Mustafa Ghouse (Ind) 5-0 (concd.); Meir Deri (Isr) bt Nitin Kirtane (Ind) 6-3, 6-1; Vishal Uppal (Ind) bt Eilran Dooyev (Isr) 6-4, 6-2; Sonchat Ratiwatana (Tha) bt Jason Torpey (GBR) 6-4, 6-4; Prahlad Srinath (Ind) bt Fred Jr. Hemmes (Ned) 7-5 (concd.); Jakub Hasek (Cze) bt Kamala Kannan (Ind) 7-6 (16-14), 7-6 (7-2); Marian Leysek (Isr) bt Michael Mora (Phi) 6-4, 6-3; Tomer Suissa (Isr) bt Alexander Jakupovic (Gre) 7-5, 6-2; Mohamed Dakki (Mar) bt Josef Nesticky (Cze) 6-3, 6-3; Branislav Sekac (Svk) bt Christophe Bosio (Mon) 6-3, 6-1. Doubles: Rohan Bopanna/Vijay Kannan (Ind) bt Tomer Suissa/Raviv Volkovitzky (Isr) 7-5, 6-3; Meir Deri/Eliran Dooyev (Isr) bt Shiv Shankar Kanbargimath/Vinod Sridhar (Ind) 6-2, 6-2; Hendri-Susilo Pramono/Febi Widhiyanto (Ina) bt Kamala Kannan/Arun Prakash Rajagopalan (Ind) 7-5, 6-2.
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