The Hindu : Rishi survives to fight another day

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 29, 2002

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Rishi survives to fight another day

Justin Gimelstob of United States hitting with kids during the Mercedes Benz Rising Stars event at the Corporation Ground (Nungambakkam) in Chennai on Saturday.

Chennai Dec. 28. The big show is back in town and the ones that had the first taste of its delights were the tennis loving kids of the city.

Even as older men were trading forehands and backhands in all seriousness, trying to qualify for the main draw of the 2003 Tata Open next door at the Nungambakkam Tennis Stadium, young ones ranging from six years to early teens were having the time of their lives in the Corporation Ground at the Mercedes Benz Rising Stars programme.

Over 5000 young ones were on hand as stars like Andrei Pavel, the popular Romanian who loves this city and its annual tennis carnival, Justin Gimelstob of the United States, Armenian Sargis Sargsian, Kristian Pless of Denmark and our own Amritraj brothers — Vijay and Anand — knocked around with them. Autographs were signed, smiles were exchanged and everybody had a jolly good time.

A huge lob away, on the courts where stars such as Mark Philippoussis, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and others will entertain the paying public in the $ 400,000 event from Monday, it was business as usual in the qualifying event.

Out of twelve Indians who featured in the qualifying draw — including Bhupathi — three made the second round, two were beaten there and only one, Rishi Sridhar, lived to fight on Sunday.

Quite the most intriguing contest was the one that pitted the experienced Bhupathi against Rishi Sridhar in the first round.

The multiple Grand Slam doubles champion and Davis Cup star has had little exposure to singles in recent times but his experience made a big difference on the court in the absorbing match which Rishi won 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The two other Indians who made the second round both beat youngsters with a famous surname.

While Vishal Uppal got past Stephen Amritraj, son of Anand Amritraj, 6-1, 6-4, Mustafa Ghouse tamed Vikram Amritraj, the second son of Vijay Amritraj, 6-0, 6-2.

But both Uppal and Ghouse were beaten in the second round. Julien Varlet raced past Uppal 6-2, 6-0 while Michael Kohlmann accounted for Ghouse 6-1, 6-2.

Manoj Mahadevan, the National grass court champion, promised a lot as he took a close first set from Olivier Patience.

But the Frenchman, playing the sort of tennis that would befit his surname, wore down the young Indian to win 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-2.

But a more interesting contest was the one between Davis Cup player Harsh Mankad and third-seeded German Bjorn Phau, who played here on a wild card a few years ago.

The German won the seesaw battle by stepping on the pedal when it mattered in the decider, outlasting Mankad 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

The teenaged Arun Prakash also fought well against the experienced doubles specialist Mose Navarra before the Italian won 6-4, 7-6 (9-7).

But the other Indians lost tamely. Germany's Michael Kohlmann outplayed Vijay Kannan 6-3, 6-1, Julien Varlet of France got past Ajay Ramaswamy 6-2, 6-0 and Croat Mario Radic breezed past Vinod Sridhar 6-2, 6-1.

Also beaten were Jaco Mathew, who went down 4-6, 2-6 to Tomas Behrend, and Kamala Kannan, who lost 1-6, 2-6 to another German, Maxmilian Abel.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport