The Hindu : Bopanna gets past Dooyev

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 07, 2002

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Bopanna gets past Dooyev

By K. Keerthivasan

Rohan Bopanna of India lunges for the ball in his semifinal match against Eliran Dooyev of Israel in the ITF men's Futures tennis championship in Chennai on Friday. — Photo: V. Ganesan

CHENNAI SEPT 6 . Rohan Bopanna played a scratchy game but his huge serves bailed him out at crucial times as the top seeded Indian scripted a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win over Eliran Dooyev, the seventh seed, of Israel in the semifinals of the Clinic All Clear $10,000 ITF men's Futures tennis championship at the SDAT-Nungambakkam Stadium here on Friday.

In another semifinal encounter between two Indians — wild card and Davis Cupper Harsh Mankad and Vinod Sridhar, the eighth seed, the former won 6-3, 5-7, 6-2. Heavy rain stopped play for close to 80 minutes.

If the way the first set between Bopanna and Dooyev was any indication, the paltry crowd that came to witness the event had every reason to believe that it would in fact turn out to be quite easy for Bopanna. With a free flowing forehand that repeatedly kept kissing the lines, Bopanna took a commanding 5-2 lead breaking the Israeli in the first, fifth and seventh games. He eventually closed out the set in the eighth game with a series of big first serves.

Dooyev is a purely baseline player who can hit the ball as long as the other player wants him to, and fatigue is a word he seems to be unaware of. Hitting diligently from the backcourt, Dooyev made a successful trap for Bopanna, who in an apparent effort to go for winners, started to make numerous unforced errors. But briefly, Bopanna showed a glimpse of why he is such a tough customer especially when it comes to his serves. Dooyev requiring a point (advantage) to take the second set at 2-5, when Bopanna came up with three aces to hold serve.

It was a different matter that Dooyev held serve in the next game to take the match to the decider. But the eighth game was an ample illustration of how potent Bopanna's serve could be. With Bopanna's free flowing forehand and backhand coming back to form, and serves too working to a nicety, he took a 3-0 lead in the decider, giving the hard hitting Israeli little options but to shout something in his own language.

Though Dooyev was totally outplayed mainly due to Bopanna's serve, he did receive a applause in the seventh game from the Indian when he produced a fine forehand passing shot on the run. Bopanna closed out the 1 hour 44 minutes in the ninth game with three aces, with a first ace coming on the second serve. Bopanna fired totally 14 aces, and it kept increasing with each passing set. ``I tried to do too much (in the second set) with a desire to finish the point. I should have avoided it,'' said Bopanna.

``From the baseline we were equal. But his serve was unbelievable,'' said the 22-year old Dooyev.

Relying only on his groundstrokes, Vinod is one player who prefers to stay from the baseline. Against an all-court player like Harsh, Vinod staged a comeback akin to his quarterfinal match against Viktor Bruthans of Slovakia. Serving for the match at 5-4, Harsh committed some unforced errors from the forehand side and was facing 3 break points. Though he saved one with a forehand winner, Vinod's persistent effort to hit the ball deep paid dividends as he broke Harsh to level scores 5-5. Holding his serve in the 11th game, Vinod was up one point away from taking the second set (6-3, 5-6 (30-40)) when heavy rain forced play for almost an hour. When play resumed, Vinod easily broke Harsh's serve to take the contest to the second set. In the decider, Harsh never looked after taking a 4-1 lead.

The results: Singles: (semifinals): India unless specified: 1-Rohan Bopanna bt 7-Eliran Dooyev (Isr) 6-2, 3-6, 6-3; Harsh Mankad bt 8-Vinod Sridhar 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.

Doubles (semifinals): Saurav Panja & Nitin Kirtane bt Vinod Sridhar & Kamala Kannan 6-4, 6-1; Vijay Kannan & Rohan Bopanna bt Sanchai & Sonchat Ratiwatana (Tha) 6-3, 7-6 (7-4); (quarterfinals): Rohan Bopanna & Vijay Kannan bt Vijendra Laad & Amanjot Singh 6-3, 6-4; Sanchai & Sonchat Ratiwatana bt Arun Prakash & Vikram Aditya Menon 6-4, 6-1; Nitin Kirtane & Saurav Panja bt Harsh Mankad & Ajay Ramaswamy 6-3, 7-6 (10-8); Kamala Kannan & Vinod Sridhar bt Kedar Thembe & Amod Wakalkar 6-3, 6-3.

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