Monday, Mar 25, 2002
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Tennis
KOLKATA, MARCH 24. This year's senior National grasscourt championship, beginning at the South Club Courts here on Monday, would miss some of the finest contemporary players on grass, with the latest casualty being the defending men's champion Mustafa Ghouse. The Maharashtra player, who won the last edition beating Vishal Uppal of Delhi, has cried off on health grounds. Also missing from the line-up are Harsh Mankad and Prahlad Srinath. Naturally, in this depleted field, top-seed Rohan Bopanna of Karnataka looks the best bet. Uppal, after being the runner-up last year, failed to gain much point and is ranked 61st with five points to his credit. He comes into the main draw as a wild card in this Indian Oil-Servo sponsored tournament. The meet is also co-sponsored by Hero Honda and The Times of India group. Bopanna, having won his fourth title in a row, including his first ITF Futures in New Delhi on Saturday, is on a roll and would be the man to beat. Second-seed Nitin Kirtane of Maharashtra, a former champion at the same venue a few years back and ranked fourth in the country, is experienced enough to handle a bunch of youngsters from Tamil Nadu. On the ladies' front, last year's champion Manisha Malhotra and the runner-up Rushmi Chakravarthy are also missing owing to commitments abroad. The winner of the men's singles title will not only win a purse of Rs. 39,000 but also gain 60 points. The runner-up will be richer by Rs. 27,000 and 45 points. The semifinalists will get Rs. 14,400 and 30 points each and the quarterfinalists Rs. 8,700 and 15 each, the pre-quarterfinalists Rs. 6,000 and five points each and those who make it to the first round will get Rs. 3,525 and three points. The men's doubles champion pair will get Rs. 18,900 and 25 points and the women's doubles winner will receive Rs. 12,600 and 25 points. In the doubles, prize money will be given upto quarterfinals. A total of Rs. five lakhs will be distributed as prize money. The men's and women's draw will be of 32 and the doubles will be of 16. All matches will be of three tie-break sets and the tournament will follow the guidelines laid down by the All India Tennis Association. Vishal Uppal and Rohan Gajjar have been nominated for wild card by the AITA. Saurav Panja gets it by virtue of being the best senior player of Bengal and the most promising junior player of the State, Vinod Kumar Sewa also comes in. The eight qualifiers in the men's section are Ajay Singh, Rupesh Roy, Abhishek Jagnani, Dhurv Kumar, Siddharth Verma and Anand Radhakrishnan (all Bengal), Amod Wakalkar of Maharashtra and Satirth Patnaik of Orissa. The seedings: Men: 1. Rohan Bopanna (Kar), 2. Nitin Kirtane (Mah), 3. Vinod Sridhar (TN), 4. Vijay Kannan (TN), 5. Rishi Sridhar (TN), 6. Manoj Mahadevan (TN), 7. Kamala Kannan (TN), 8. Punna Vishal (AP). Women: 1. Radhika Tulpule (Mah), 2. Sonal Phadke (Mah), 3. Sai Jayalakshmi (TN), 4. Sheetal Goutham (Kar), 5. Shruti Dhawan (Cha), 6. Archana Venkatraman (Kar), 7. Liza Pereira (Mah), 8. Radhika Mandke (Mah).
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