Sport - Tennis

Sheetal does the Houdini act

By Nandakumar Marar

MUMBAI APRIL 3. Sheetal Goutam's survival instinct is well known on the Indian tennis circuit. So are her limitations. Fortunately for the fifth seed, youngster Ankita Bhambri remembered the first part and played safe, looking for hidden aces, overlooked the second aspect and missed an upset possibility.

In one of the longest singles matches in the $ 5000 International Tennis Federation's Women's Circuit so far, Sheetal pulled back from the brink of defeat to score a 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(5) victory after a battle lasting two hours, 10 minutes at the Shivaji Park Gymkhana.

Ankita, unseeded in the women's singles draw, was left wondering at the reversal of fortunes, going out in the second round after being on the threshold of victory at 4-1 up in the decider, 40-0 on serve. She had Sheetal at her mercy on the big points, but held her punches as if wary of an unseen force and ended up paying a heavy price. The fifth seed is now in the quarterfinals, facing wildcard Krushmi Chedha and appears confident enough to go all the way. Seventh seed Liza Pereira was the only other ranked player to be taken the distance on the third day.

Liza got into all sorts of trouble against the hard-hitting Geeta Manohar, losing the first set tie-breaker before working her way up inch-by-inch to win 6-7(7), 6-3, 6-2 for a quarterfinal place opposite fourth seed Sonal Phadke. Third seed Sai Jayalakshmy will take on sixth seed Archana Venkataraman while eighth seed Samrita Sekar faces second seed Radhika Tulpule in the other match-ups to decide the semifinalists. The ITF Mumbai leg is sponsored by Indian Oil Servo and co-sponsored by Bank of Baroda.

Sheetal can afford to smile about her escape act, spread over 130 minutes, the decider which went into the tie-breaker lasting an hour. Down 1-4, 0-40 one point away from losing the fifth game of the third set and a defeat on the cards, how did she climb out of the hole? "I was not going to give up. I knew I was going to lose anyway, but not without a fight,'' said the fifth seed, known for winning mind games when limitations in her tennis are exposed. "I kept getting the ball across, making her do the hard work for the points.''

Ankita walked into the trap in the first set, losing 2-6 after 40 minutes of slam-bang tennis, took charge in the second 6-2 in 39 minutes, but slipped back into a tentative mode in the decider. She hit powerfully, served well and looked a far superior player compared to her canny rival, but for some reason stuck to the baseline even when innocuous lobs coming over the net demanded an aggressive response. Sheetal took her by surprise with surges to the net and there was no looking back after bouncing back from 1-4 down to 4-4 in the third set.

"I have played Ankita twice before, won both times. She hit hard, served really well against me today,'' said Sheetal, leaving the best part unsaid. It is for the opponents to figure that out. They know she is beatable, know her game well but somehow end up at the receiving end.

The results (Indian unless specified):

Women's singles (second round): 5-Sheetal Goutam bt Ankita Bhambri 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(5); 3-Sai Jayalakshmy bt Vandana Murali 6-2, 6-1; Krushmi Chedha bt Kanisha Mehta 6-2, 6-1; 7-Liza Pereira bt Geeta Manohar 6-7(7), 6-3, 6-2; 6-Archana Venkataraman bt Medhini Sharma 6-3, 6-0; 4-Sonal Phadke bt Rati Kumar 6-1, 6-4; 8-Samrita Sekar bt Eveline Rusdianto (Indonesia) 6-3, 6-0; 2-Radhika Tulpule bt Kamini Murugabhoopathy 6-1, 6-0.

Women's doubles (first round): A. Bhambri/S. Phadke bt Lata Assudani/Rati Kumar 6-2, 6-3; Vandana Murali/Iciri Rai bt Ashlesha Lokhande/Priyanka Mehta 6-3, 6-0. Second round: S. Goutam/L. Pereira bt K. Chedha/M. Sharma 7-5, 6-4.

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