Sunday, Aug 25, 2002
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Tennis
By Kamesh Srinivasan
Sunil Kumar is all smiles after winning the ITF Futures singles title at the DLTA courts in New Delhi on Saturday. — Photo: R.V. Moorthy
It was an anticlimax as the fourth-seeded Vijay Kannan was nowhere near the form that had seen him match power with power against the top-seeded Rohan Bopanna the previous day. Yet, there was no denying the credit for the fifth-seeded Sunil as the 19-year-old Chandigarh lad put his energetic game in winning repeated applause from the sparse gathering. Sunil set the tempo by breaking Vijay in the seventh and ninth games, racing away with the first set in about 40 minutes. Vijay did save two setpoints but Sunil followed a backhand return winner with a lob to take the set. Vijay was far too soft with his strokes and tended to play into the hands of Sunil even when the latter was at the net, to be able to make a match of it. Initially, it looked the game plan for Vijay, but it was clear as the match progressed that Vijay did not have the energy to strike hard. There were opportunities for Vijay in the second set to push the contest into the decider, but the Railway employee missed five breakpoints in all in the first, seventh and 11th games. Vijay himself had saved two breakpoints in the second game of the set when he fired two aces to challenge Sunil, but he happened to hang in there till he was knocked out. Into the tiebreak, it was Sunil's show all the way, as he ran up a 4-1 lead with a mix of winners and lobs. Vijay bridged the gap to 3-4, but Sunil pulled on, clinching the contest with a backhand passing shot down the line. ``This was long over due'', said the chairman of selectors, Shyam Minotra, as he congratulated Sunil and gave away the trophy. As a 16-year-old Sunil had won the national title at the same venue, and has hit his way past hurdles in making the progress in the men's professional world. He had won the Asian junior title here last year, and has made meaningful progress, in terms of skill and confidence, since then. ``It feels great'', said Sunil, as he thoroughly relished the first fragrance in the intensely competitive world of professional tennis. Sunil had made the final of a similar tournament in Canada recently, and asserted his supremacy as he reached the title here without dropping a set through the week. Sunil served six aces, and struck 27 winners including seven passing shots that kept a hesitant Vijay ambling side to side at the baseline. In comparison, Vijay had five aces and nine winners. He seemed to have exhausted his weapons in the nerve-wracking against Bopanna. More than the winners, Sunil stretched Vijay with his fine shots that saw the lanky Chennai lad cornered, even on his forehand side.
The winner collected Rs.60,810 after tax deductions, and 12 ATP points while the runner-up pocketed Rs.42,099 and nine ATP points, including the bonus point for beating Rohan Bopanna in the semifinals.
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