Thursday, Aug 22, 2002
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Tennis
By Kamesh Srinivasan
Mustafa Ghouse, who defeated Harsh Mankad in the second round, executes a backhand return in the ITF Futures tennis tournament in New Delhi on Wednesday. — Photo: R. V. Moorthy
Growing with confidence as the match progressed, Mustafa overcame moments of nerves in the third set tie-break in recording a morale-boosting 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4) victory over Harsh Mankad, who did everything right except finishing on the right side of the score. In contrast, Rohan Bopanna found his energetic game in the climax to wriggle out of a tight corner, when he found Gajjar serving 40-15 at 4-2 in the third set, to eventually triumph at 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. The results may not mean much to the fortunes of both Harsh and Bopanna, in terms of retaining their places in the Davis Cup squad for the tie against Australia next month, but they would have made the Chairman of selectors, Shyam Minotra, who was present at the venue, exercise his grey cells. The vulnerability of Indian tennis, the second string to be precise was very much evident for the sparse gathering, despite the fact that it was treated to some quality play. The fact that there was only one break of serve in the whole match that lasted two hours and 37 minutes spoke about the intense play of Harsh and Mustafa. Even when he got broken in the fourth game of the first set, Mustafa showed his firepower by saving two breakpoints with aces after being 0-40 following three loose shots. Harsh keep passing Mustafa initially with his sharp stroke-play, but as the match meandered on, Mustafa played a lot better and freely. "I did not think about me making a point by beating him. Just played one point at a time. I don't think that I played well, and I didn't return that well. I was lucky to come through in the end'', was Mustafa's honest assessment. After weeks of rest following a shoulder injury in England, the 22-year-old Mustafa did well to play a quality game against Harsh who had shown his ability in playing well against Andy Roddick in the Davis Cup tie against U.S. and more recently in the tie against New Zealand in cold conditions. Both the players knew the magnitude of the match, and thus were quite sharp, though they were not able to be at their best. Harsh seemed to be getting to the finish, when Mustafa double-faulted and netted a backhand volley to be down 3-4 in the third-set tie-break. However, the 540th ranked Mustafa galloped to victory, as he spanked a winner to be on par, and benefited on the 1321st ranked Harsh's mistakes over the next three points. There was a lot more drama in the second match on the show-court, as the 18-year-old Rohan Gajjar, ranked 1253 matched the 432nd ranked Rohan Bopanna. It was the solid-stroking Gajjar who took the initiative by clinching the first set with a break in the third game, when Bopanna delivered three double-faults. His double fisted backhand earned a lot more respect than his forehand from his rival, who sprayed his shots most of the time. Gajjar was unlucky to get a bad call at 30-30 that eventually saw him getting broken decisively in the fourth game of the second set. He got broken again in the sixth game, but bounced back in the decider with renewed focus. It was sheer inexperience as his nerves betrayed Gajjar when he was up 40-15 at 4-2 in the decider, after he had broken Bopanna in the fourth game. Once he got broken there, it was tough for him to catch up. Bopanna fired his serves hard and added to Gajjar's woes by breaking him in the seventh and ninth games to lead 5-4. He served five of his 10 aces in the third set, and wound up the match with one. It had to be conceded that it was another bad call by the linesman and the umpire as the serve on match point missed the sideline by at least four inches. Gajjar threw up his arms in disgust, but the lanky young man would come back knocking on the doors of the national selectors soon. Bopanna praised Gajjar for his fine performance, but added that he knew it was difficult for the younger player to stay at that level till the finish. "I knew he was a good player with a solid game. The fact that I had won about half a dozen matches after being a set down, in recent weeks, gave me the confidence. I had also won a couple of matches after being down a break in the third. Basically, I knew that I could turn it around if I hung in there'', said a relieved Bopanna. In other matches, Sunil Kumar recovered from being down 0-3 to win in straight sets against Attapol Rithiwattanapong of Thailand, and the fourth-seeded Vijay Kannan dismissed qualifier Ishay Hadash of Israel for the loss of one game. In the doubles quarterfinals, Harsh Mankad and Ajay Ramaswami recorded a hard-fought three-set victory over the top-seeded Rohan Bopanna and Vijay Kannan. An oversight by the referee Puneet Gupta had led to Harsh and Ajay figuring as the losers in the official results in the first round, but the two Mumbai lads added to the embarrassment by making the semifinals. The results (Indians unless specified): Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Rohan Bopanna bt Rohan Gajjar 3-6, 6-1, 6-4; Eliran Dooyev (Isr) bt Roy Sichel (Isr) 2-6, 6-4, 6-0; Vijay Kannan bt Ishay Hadash (Isr) 6-1, 6-0; Stephen Nugent (Irl) bt Rishi Sridhar 7-6 (7-5), 6-0; Sunil Kumar bt Attapol Rithiwattanapol (Tha) 6-4, 6-4; Ciarran Moore (RSA) bt Moti Maaravi (Isr) 6-2, 6-3; Sonchat Ratiwatana (Tha) bt Bhee Witoonpanich (Tha) 6-4, 6-3; Mustafa Ghouse bt Harsh Mankad 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4). Doubles (quarterfinals): Harsh Mankad & Ajay Ramaswami bt Rohan Bopanna & Vijay Kannan 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (6-8), 6-4; Mustafa Ghouse & Sunil Kumar bt Roy Sichel & Dekel Valtzer (Isr) 6-4, 6-0; Rohan Gajjar & Jaco T. Mathew bt Eliran Dooyev & Assaf Drori (Isr) 6-3, 2-6, 6-4; Sanchai Ratiwatana & onchat Ratiwatana (Tha) bt Sean Cooper & Stephen Nugent (Irl) 6-1, 6-4.
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