The Hindu : Tennis: Gold for Nitin Kirtane & Sania

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 22, 2002

Sport

Sport - National Games

Tennis: Gold for Nitin Kirtane & Sania

By A. Joseph Antony

Maharashtra's Nitin Kirtane is ecstatic after capturing the National Games men's singles tennis title on Saturday. — Photo: M. Moorthy

HYDERABAD Dec. 21 Even after the National Games began, few would have looked twice at city lad Vishal Punna.

His victory over second seed Vijay Kannan in the prequarter-finals was attributed to the latter's exhaustion. People sat up and took notice when he came back to crush Chandigarh's Chatwinder Singh in the semi-final.

In Saturday's concluding showdown, few would have thought he'd lose to eventual title winner Nitin Kirtane, 3-6, 6-4, 6-7 (4-7).

Kirtane claimed the first set with a fair measure of authority, wresting serve in the third and ninth games.

Experience stood the old hand in good stead, although he lost a little of his grip in the second, tiring perhaps and a shade subdued against Vishal's big serves.

Where the seasoned campaigner scored over the 19-year old Hyderabadi was mostly on overhead lobs, many of which the latter squandered. When the chips were down in the decider, with Kirtane down 1-3, he never gave up. Trailing 2-4 and serving in the seventh, he hurled his racquet in frustration over a lost point. A fortuitous graze of the net found the ball slip into Punna's court, fetching Kirtane the point and the game.

Vishal however held his own in the next, going up 5-3.Others would have chewed off their nails, but Kirtane kept his cool, clinching the ninth without conceding a point.

On the threshold of victory, Punna's backhand volleys began to go wayward and his sliced returns slammed into the net.

When the set went into tie-breaker, Kirtane, a veteran of many such encounters could not have thanked his stars more. Young Vishal's errors piled up, as he bowed out when the net barricaded his return.

Earlier, in the women's final, an ailing Manisha Malhotra caved in without a fight to Sania Mirza 0-6, 0-6.

"I couldn't walk or hold the racquet," the runner-up said after the match.

In both sets, the loser was broken in the second, fourth and sixth games. Sania's starting with an ace was perhaps one of the few highpoints of the one-sided contest.

The results (finals):

Men's singles: Nitin Kirtane (Mah) bt Vishal Punna (AP) 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4). Bronze: Chatwinder Singh (Cha), Vinod Sridhar (TN).

Women's singles: Sania Mirza (AP) bt Manisha Malhotra (AP) 6-0, 6-0. Bronze: Sonal Phadke (Mah), Archana Venkatraman (Kar).

Mixed doubles: Vishal Uppal & Ankita Bhambri (Del) bt Vijay Kannan & Rushmi Chakravarthy (TN) 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.

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