Wednesday, Aug 28, 2002
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Tennis
By Kalyan Ashok
Rohan Bopanna makes a forehand return in his match against Vinod Sridhar in the Stellar-ITF Futures tennis championship at Gulbarga on Tuesday. It took Bopanna three gruelling sets to beat Sridhar. — Photo: K. Gopinathan
It took one minute short of two hours for Bopanna to achieve his 7-6 (7-3), 2-6, 7-6 (7-5) victory over Sridhar and, in the process, Bopanna was physically and mentally drained. It has been non-stop tennis for the past 13 weeks for Bopanna and the strain told on him. He was plagued by nausea right through the match. "I had to go off the court twice and in the decider, every time I went for a high ball my throat was choked and it was very tough.'' But somehow, the Bangalore-based Davis Cupper, held his nerve and his mental strength and will power pulled him through. Bopanna could hardly play his best and Sridhar, though tending to choke initially, came up with a determined display in the second and third sets and almost did Bopanna in. In the first set, Vinod Sridhar was off to an ominous start, dropping the first game after he began with a double fault, but he broke Bopanna in the eighth game, which set the set on course for a tie-breaker. Bopanna, with a series of stunning returns raced to a 6-1 lead in the tie-breaker and wrapped it up at 7-3. Bopanna, however, slackened in the second set and there was visible signs of his pain and kept missing easy returns and made a spate of unforced errors as Sridhar took the set at 6-2 with breaks in the fifth and seventh games. Bopanna, pushed into the decider, showed a sense of purpose and broke Sridhar in the first game to set up a 3-0 lead. But Sridhar charged back into the set to square at four-all after breaking Bopanna in the seventh game. He kept the heat on and Bopanna just about managed to hold his serves and took the set to a tie-breaker again. A 3-1 lead saw Sridhar all charged up, but Bopanna won a good point after a great rally and then kept punching hard and true forcing Sridhar to spray his returns out. He finally closed out the set and match 7-6 (7-5). Relief was written all over his face at the end. The clash of Davis Cuppers, Sunil Kumar and Harsh Mankad was won by the former. Sixth-seeded Sunil Kumar maintained his form to trounce Harsh Mankad 6-3, 6-3. Sunil Kumar played a free flowing game, serving hard and returned sharply, while Harsh Mankad was a trifle slower and also ran into problems with his first serve. He conceded a break once in each set (fifth game in the first and sixth in the second), and dropped both the sets with double faults. Second-seeded Mustafa Ghouse made an unfortunate exit, conceding his tie in the decider against Roy Sichel of Israel after pulling a stomach muscle. Ghouse was in his element in the first set, which he won 6-2 with an attacking game, but as the match progressed it became a messy affair with the Israeli questioning a few line calls. Sichel took the second set at 6-3 and led 4-3 in the decider, before Ghouse called it quits. Ajay Ramaswamy clinically cut down another Israeli, Dekel Valtzer, 6-3, 6-3. The young Rohan Gajjar kept his cool while beating temperamental Slovkian Michal Varsanyi 6-3, 2-6, 6-1. Varsanyi was peeved with the frequent change of balls (Wilson) which kept breaking up. The results (first round): 1-Rohan Bopanna bt Vinod Sridhar 7-6, (7-3), 2-6, 7-6 (7-5); 7-Ajay Ramaswamy bt Valtzer Dekel (Isr) 6-3, 6-3; 3-Viktor Bruthans (Svk) bt R. Nouramatov (Rus) 6-3, 6-2; 6-Sunil Kumar Sipaeya bt Harsh Mankad 6-3, 6-3; Kamala Kannan bt Rishi Sridhar 6-3, conceded; Roy Sichel (Isr) bt 2-Mustafa Ghouse 2-6, 6-3, 4-3 (conceded); Amanjot Singh bt Shivang Misra 6-1, 7-5; Rohan Gajjar bt M. Varsanyi (Svk) 6-3, 2-6, 6-1; Claran Moore (RSA) bt Stephen Nugent (Irl) 6-4, 6-2; Sonchat Ratiwatana (Thai) bt Yew Ming Si (Mas) 7-5, 2-6, 6-4. Final qualifying round: Somdev Varman bt Maaravi (Isr) 7-5, 2-6, 6-1; Alexi Ageev (Rus) bt Stephen Nugent (Irl) 6-1, 6-3; Punna Vishal bt D. Sadonik (Isr) 6-4, 6-2; Sean Cooper (Irl) bt Saurav Panja 6-0, conceded; Yew Ming Si (Mas) bt A. Wakalkar 6-4, 6-4; Kedar Tembe bt Benzvi (Isr) 5-7, 6-1, 6-2; M. Zirkin (Isr) bt Iram Pellad (Isr) 6-2, 4-0 (conceded); Alexeev Filenkov (Rus) bt P. Ravishankar 7-5, 7-5.
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