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Tennis
By Kamesh Srinivasan
NEW DELHI MARCH 23 . Rohan Bopanna sipped the champagne straight from the bottle. For, he had had too many slips between the cup and the lip. The 22-year-old Coorgi, the brightest hope in Indian tennis at the moment, nailed the elusive international title with a hard-earned 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 6-4 victory over Dmitri Mazur of Uzbekistan in the $10,000 ITF Futures tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday. It was a rare moment in Indian tennis when champagne was uncorked at this level, but Bopanna deserved the honour, as he showed his fighting spirit even when he was not playing well, and revealed a strengthened resolve in overcoming some of the mental blocks. When he served two double faults from 30-30 in dropping the tenth game while serving for the championship at 5-4 in the second set, Bopanna seemed to slip into the same mode that had seen him lose two Futures finals to Prahlad Srinath and the National hard-court final to Vijay Kannan. However, in regaining his composure and delivering the final punch with an ace, 48 minutes after the hiccup, Bopanna did stress that he had come of age to tackle the challenges of the professional circuit. Incidentally, Bopanna had started the contest, which lasted two hours and 21 minutes, with an ace. Playing the final is a different proposition, and it was understandable that both the players were unable to project their best tennis, but there was no dearth of drama in the match. Bopanna had 15 winners to 24 by the Uzbek, but his big serves bailed him out of trouble at crucial stages. It was a commendable as the Indian Davis Cupper enjoyed only a 52 per cent first serve success rate, and failed to get the second serves right nine times. Quite understandably, Bopanna was wary of approaching the net, and it was the Uzbek who was more daring as he had five volley winners. In such a scenario, it was no surprise that Bopanna conceded the initiative, by getting broken in the seventh game with a couple of backhand errors, as the fifth-seeded Mazur denied the pace to the Indian. The sixth-seeded Bopanna broke back in the tenth game as the Uzbek obliged with a string of errors. In the eventual tie-break, Bopanna fired two aces from being 4-4 to clinch the set. However, the Indian ace was in a spot of bother when he got broken in the fourth game and trailed 1-4 in the second set. Quite dramatically, Bopanna bounced back in the sixth game by wriggling out from being 0-40 with three of his 13 aces in the match. Riding on the momentum, Bopanna raced to 5-4 with breaks in the seventh and ninth games, holding his own serve at love in the eighth, even as Mazur grappled with his game. Everything looked to be set for the finish, and even the Uzbek was ready to pack his bag, when Bopanna made a mess of serving out the match in that tenth game, when he got broken after being 30-15, with three errors including two successive double-faults. The disappointment was such that Bopanna could not stop himself from being broken in the 12th game as well, again from being up 30-15 with a string of errors. It could have been tricky, but Bopanna converted the third breakpoint in the first game of the decider, and held on to the break, like dear life. He did miss a breakpoint in the third game, but Bopanna served with his usual confidence and conceded a mere nine points in all in his five service games in the third set. Mazur tried his best, despite sporting a left-shoe that was in tatters, mixing up everything he had to offer, in pushing the Indian to his wit's end. Yet, the Uzbek lacked the firepower and hunger of Bopanna to make the decisive sprint in the final stretch. "It really feels good, and this title mean a lot to me. I have been working hard. I could have finished in straight sets, but went for a big second serve at 30-30 and it didn't work. Luckily, I got the break in the first game of third set'', said Bopanna, quite thrilled with the achievement, which fetched him $1300 and 12 ATP points. . To that extent the champagne was quite appropriate. Even Mazur, who collected 900 dollars and eight ATP points, could appreciate that, as he poured some of it into the runners-up cup, and cheerfully sipped his way out of the arena.
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