The Hindu : Vijay Kannan too hot for Bopanna

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 24, 2002

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Vijay Kannan too hot for Bopanna

By Kamesh Srinivasan

Vijay Kannan executes a backhand shot against Rohan Bopanna in the ITF Futures tennis tournament in New Delhi on Friday. — Photo: R.V. Moorthy

NEW DELHI AUG. 23. Vijay Kannan had enough fire in the belly in beating the best ranked Indian on the ATP tour, the top-seeded Rohan Bopanna 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals of the $10,000 ITF Futures tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Friday.

In a close encounter, when the fortunes hung on a thin line till the end, Bopanna showed an unusual hurry after a break and hastened his exit, getting broken at love in the tenth game of the decider.

In the other semifinal, Sunil Kumar played a steady game and overpowered Sonchat Ratiwatana of Thailand 6-3, 6-4.

Bopanna has been playing well in recent times, as his 57 ATP points would testify. However, he has not been able to string matches together the way he did here the last time in March in a similar tournament.

That urgency to ride on his power-game was very much evident for everyone to see, when Bopanna tried to break the resistance of Vijay in the decider at 4-5, but the idea backfired and the 432nd ranked had to bow out, offering a bonus point to Vijay.

Bopanna had saved a breakpoint with a forehand down the line winner hit into the corner in the tenth game of the first set. He broke Vijay in 11th game and served out in the next in taking the set.

He could have done that again in the second set but hit a backhand long on the only breakpoint he faced in the tenth game of the second set. After serving and stroking with confidence and panache, Bopanna was back to square one after 90 minutes of play.

Vijay, who was playing his best, sensed his chances and opened up a 4-1 lead in the decider with a break in the second game. Vijay saved four breakpoints in the seventh game to press home the advantage, while Bopanna expressed his firepower by holding serve in the eighth with two aces.

Bopanna did miss two breakpoints in the ninth game, but smashed a return winner and followed that with a forehand crosscourt passing shot to win the break in the ninth.

It was an anti-climax when Bopanna succumbed to his attacking instincts. There was a stroke of luck as Vijay smashed a winner to be up 0-30 on Bopanna's serve in that last game, when a net chord fell in his favour, after a tough rally.

``I thought of using the momentum and making it 5-5 quickly. I hurried a bit too much and it didn't work out," said Bopanna, who had thrown the racquet in disgust at the end of the match.

Vijay served only three aces, but managed to deliver the first serves when it mattered. It was as good an exhibition of thoughtful tennis that Vijay was capable of, and he really earned his maiden entry into a Futures final. He won the contest mainly because of his sense of belief and a better degree of concentration.

It would be the second Futures final for the left-handed Sunil Kumar, who had made his earlier final in a Futures event recently in Canada.

Sunil served and stroked with such fluency that the Thai was exasperated right at the start. Unlike his last few matches when he had an indifferent start, Sunil was on song straightaway, and toyed with Ratiwatana, who had put out the second-seeded Mustafa Ghouse. Sunil let the Thai save a matchpoint in the ninth game, but served out in the next without fuss. It should be an interesting final between the 699th-ranked Vijay Kannan and the 744th-ranked Sunil Kumar.

In the doubles final, Harsh Mankad and Ajay Ramaswamy tamed the juniors Rohan Gajjar and Jaco T. Mathew 6-4, 6-4. Harsh and Ajay were able to exploit the weakness of Mathew's serves, in both the sets, as they broke him thrice in all. Harsh was broken once in the first set.

Jaco looked to win the hearts of the children watching the proceedings, with a running retrieve on matchpoint, but Harsh and Ajay were too good to be delayed the joy of triumph.

The winning team collected Rs. 30,101 and 12 ATP points, and the runner-up team collected Rs. 15,767 and eight ATP points.

The results:

Singles (semifinals): Vijay Kannan bt Rohan Bopanna 5-7, 6-4, 6-4; Sunil Kumar bt Sonchat Ratiwatana (Tha) 6-3, 6-4.

Doubles (Final): Harsh Mankad & Ajay Ramaswami bt Rohan Gajjar & Jaco T. Mathew 6-4, 6-4.

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