Thursday, Dec 12, 2002
Thursday, Dec 12, 2002 |
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Tennis
By Kamesh Srinivasan
Hyun-Joon Suk of Korea who beat Karan Rastogi in the pre-quarterfinals of the GAIL Asian junior tennis championship in New Delhi on Wednesday. — Photo: V.V. Krishnan
The sparse gathering watched Karan going down in a heap of errors, failing to win another game, after leading 5-2 in the first set. Maybe, Karan, playing quite till then, hitting his double fisted backhand with telling effect, lost the confidence in his game all of a sudden when serving for the first set at 5-3. The Korean who had come through in a grinder of a contest in the previous round, stroked hard into the corners to exasperate the Indian lad as the match progressed. The Korean backed his powerful game with deft volleys to complicate matters for Karan, who lacked the intensity of focus to make a fight of it this day. However, other Indians, dark horse Amanjot Singh and the fifth-seeded Somdev Dev Varman made the quarterfinals to keep the Indian challenge alive. Amanjot blasted the seventh-seeded Kenichiro Nakahara of Japan for the loss of one game, to set up a clash with the top-seeded Wang-Cheng Hsieh of Chinese Taipei. Hsieh needed a three setter to get past Brian Hung of Hong Kong. Somdev warded off a stiff challenge from Divij Sharan after losing the first set, to be ready for the clash with the fourth-seeded Hiu-Tung Yu of Hong Kong. Divij was quite steady, but Somdev was able to push his game that much better in the climax, even as he retained his patience during the long-drawn rallies. Tushar Liberhan played well after losing the first set, but in the climax he was found wanting and dropped serve in the 12th game to lose the race for the quarterfinals, 1-6, 6-0, 5-7 to Thai Weerapat Doakmaiklee. In the girls' section, Ankita Bhambri outclassed seventh-seeded So-Jung Kim of Korea. Ankita came a bit late for her match, as she had been informed that the matches would start an hour late, rather than minutes, following the overnight `player party.' Being a diligent student of the game, Ankita was able to measure her opponent in the first set, which was a lot closer than the 6-0 score would suggest. The local girl played her game nicely in the second and third sets to pull through, for a quarterfinal against the top-seeded Isha Lakhani. The unseeded and bespectacled Kartiki Bhat hitting hard and deep consistently through the match defeated Montinee Tangphong of Thailand. Kartiki can fancy her chances against Lyoo-Suh Hee Sun of Korea who ousted the third-seeded Ting-Wen Wang of Chinese Taipei. The second-seeded Sania Mirza was in a spot of bother after being up 4-1, against a defensive Yi Chen of Chinese Taipei, who had beaten her earlier in the season. Sania stuck to her attacking game and found her way past the Taipei girl, hitting winners on either flank, that much beyond the opponent's reach. Sania will take on qualifier Marutha Devi who weathered a strong challenge from Madura Ranganathan in three sets. Tara Iyer was the other Indian girl to make the quarterfinals, and the 14-year-old did so dropping just three games in two rounds, at the expense of inexperienced Indian opponents. Tara will have a chance to showcase her all-round game against the fourth-seeded Yung-Jan Chan of Chinese Taipei on the morrow. The results: Boys (pre-quarterfinals): Wang-Cheng Hsieh (Tpe) bt Brian Hung (Hkg) 4-6, 6-3, 7-5; Amanjot Singh bt Kenichiro Nakahara (Jpn) 6-0, 6-1; Hyun-Joon Suk (Kor) bt Karan Rastogi 7-5, 6-0; Cheuk Wai Hui (Hkg) bt Saurabh Kohli 6-4, 6-2; Somdev Dev Varman bt Divij Sharan 4-6, 6-3, 6-4; Hiu-Tung Yu (Hkg) bt Rupesh Roy 6-1, 6-2; Weerapat Doakmaiklee (Tha) bt Tushar Liberhan 6-1, 0-6, 7-5; Tai-Wei Liu (Tpe) bt Navdeep Singh 6-3, 6-2. Doubles (quarterfinals): Saurabh Kohli/Karan Rastogi bt Tai Wei Liu/Yi-Chang Wu (Tpe) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3; Woong Sun Jun (Kor)/Yu-Da Shieh (Tpe) bt Somdev Dev Varman/Amanjot Singh 1-6, 6-3, 6-4; Tushar Liberhan/Divij Sharan bt Punna Vikas/R. Arun Prakash 6-3, 4-6, 6-1; Wang Chang Hsieh/Yi Ming Wu (Tpe) Brian Hung/Cheuk Wai Hui (Hkg) 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6). Girls (pre-quarterfinals): Isha Lakhani bt Sandhya Nagaraj 6-0, 6-2; Ankita Bhambri bt So-Jung Kim (Kor) 0-6, 6-1, 6-4; Lyoo-Suh Hee Sun (Kor) bt Ting-Wen Wang (Tpe) 6-1, 2-6, 7-5; Kartiki Bhat bt Montinee Tangphong (Tha) 6-4, 6-2; Tara Iyer bt Parul Goswami 6-0, 6-1; Yung-Jan Chan (Tpe) bt Ji-Young Kim (Kor) 6-2, 3-6, 6-0; Marutha Devi bt Madura Ranganathan 7-5, 3-6, 6-1; Sania Mirza bt Yi Chen (Tpe) 7-5, 6-3. Doubles (quarterfinals): Sania Mirza/Isha Lakhani bt Porntip Mulsap/Pichittra Thongdach (Tha) 7-6 (7-5), 6-0; Yi Chen (Tpe)/Maya Rosa (Ina) bt Krushmi Chheda/Shraddha Lodha 6-0, 6-4; Ankita Bhambri/Sanaa Bhambri bt Kartiki Bhat/Tara Iyer 6-2, 6-1; Ji Young Kim/So Jung Kim bt Montinee Tangphong/Thassha Vittayaviroj (Tha) 6-2, 6-0.
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