Wednesday, Apr 24, 2002
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Tennis
By G. Viswanath
Winning an ATP point or two and hoping for a maximum of five was the motive, although US Dollars converted into Indian Rupees was substantial incentive to drive them all to play to win. "Either you play for fame or for money. It cannot be for anything else," was what one time All England champion Eddie Chung told an upcoming Indian girl badminton player years ago. For the majority in the $5,000 ITF Indian Women's Masters which got off in broad daylight at the P.Y.C. Hindu Gymkhana it was purely a matter of `name and fame'. Almost half of them will be teenagers for another three or four years and their primary goal was to earn their first ATP point and become a little more famous by putting it across rivals a fews years older. Mumbai girl Medini Sharma did exactly that with a clinical flattening job of the No. 2 seed Samrita Sekar in the first round of the masters. Medini's 6-3, 6-3 win must have warmed the cockles of many a heart and her parents in particular, one of whom was Sanjay Sharma, for many years a distinguished doubles player in badminton. Medini took one hour and eight minutes to bring to her knees a rival whose fan club had increased some days ago in Mumbai. Almost half an hour after Medini had knocked out Samrita — the first leg winner in Mumbai — from the Masters, a 14-year-old from Chennai, Vandana Murali shocked the No. 3 seed Radhika Tukpule and her local supporters who watched in disbelief, the Pune girl bowing out of the tournament within the first three hours of the first day's programme. hile Medini and Vandana basked in the limelight and made it a joyous morning for themselves, Nandini Perumal's performance and result was not as good as the first two. She matched the top seed Sai Jayalakshmy in the first set and won it in the tie-breaker, but was routed in the next two, managing to win just one game in 13. Sai's experience stood her in good stead. The first three seeded players were the first to step on the courts on Tuesday morning, but Sai was the odd one in three who managed to keep her reputation intact and survive the first day when a handful of juniors successfully challenged and invaded the seniors' territory. Samrita did not look anywhere near as good as when she beat Sai in the title match in Mumbai and also Radhika and Sonal Phadke. The conditions heat and sand — were the same for all and hence she cannot blame it on the climate and surface for her second rate display. In fact, she never got going. Absent in her game was direction in serves, strong returns and consistency and depth in ground strokes. Also evident was her frayed temperament. In contrast, Medini gave full freedom to her repertoire of strokes from the mid and back court and hit winners. "I played well. My hand was trembling while serving at 5-2,'' said Medini, who had lost to Archana Venkatraman in Mumbai, Samrita (3-6, 4-6) in Nagpur and Isha Lakhani in Kolhapur, all in the quarterfinals. Vandana would regard her victory against Radhika as her best result in the summer. She stepped on the court in a most positive frame of mind, managed to get a high percentage of first serves in, and hit the ball close to the lines that made things difficult for her rival to think of a quick riposte. Consistency was also her hallmark and playing aggressively and piling pressure on Radhika was a good tactic. She might have eased up a bit in the third set leading 5-1, but she did not choke. She was the deserving winner after an hour and 34 minutes of play. It took the top seed Sai two hours and eight minutes to get the better of Nandini. The first set consumed a lot of time after which Sai was the runaway winner. Sonal Phadke defeated Indonesia's Eveline Rusdianto in straight sets and the No. 4 seed Sheethal Goutham made short work of Krushmi Chheda. Form and luck fluctuated in the match between Rati Kumar and Kamini Murugabhoopathy. The energy sapping near two-hour contest saw Rati Kumar win the third set tie-breaker and shrug her shoulders and exude a wry smile. Kamini, who had had a couple of match points, slumped in her seat and put her head down, terribly disappointed. By nightfall two more remarkable wins were posted by Delhi's 15-year-old Ankita Bhambri and Hyderabad's Geeta Manohar. Ankita spent one hour and 40 minutes to subdue the experienced Archana Venkatraman, a seeded player in the first three legs of the Satellite. Geeta downed Liza Pereira in three sets to complete the quarterfinal line-up. The results: Women's singles (first round): 1-Sai Jayalakshmy bt Nandini Perumal 6-7 (1-7), 6-1, 6-0; Vandana Murali bt 3-Radhika Tulpule 3-6, 6-4, 6-3; Sonal Phadke bt Eveline Rusdianto (Indonesia) 6-2, 6-3; 4-Sheethal Goutham bt Krushmi Chheda 6-3, 6-0; Rati Kumar bt Kamini Murugabhoopathy 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (9-7); Medini Sharma bt 2-Samrita Sekar 6-3, 6-3; Ankita Bhambri bt Archana Venkatraman 6-2, 7-5; Geeta Manohar bt Liza Pereira 6-4, 0-6, 6-4. Quarterfinal schedule: Sai Jayalakshmy v Ankita Bhambri, Vandana Murali v Sonal Phadke, Geeta Manohar v Sheethal Goutham, Rati Kumar v Medini Sharma.
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