The Hindu : Akgul Amanmuradova outplays Sheetal Goutham

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 19, 2003

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Akgul Amanmuradova outplays Sheetal Goutham

By Kalyan Ashok

BANGALORE Feb. 18. Akgul Amanmuradova, the strong built Uzbek, who towers over six feet, is the kind of player who can instil a sense of awe in her rivals. On Tuesday, the strong serving and hard hitting, 19-year-old from Tashkent proved more than a match for the local favourite, Sheetal Goutham, who battled against odds before going down in the opening round at 5-7, 3-6 in the Reliance $10,000 ITF Women's Circuit tennis championship at the KSLTA Stadium here.

Sheetal, ranked 661, had the advantage of playing on home courts, but that alone cannot be a match-winning factor.

Known for her guile and guts, Sheetal did show a lot resolve in the first set, but she just could not tackle Amanmuradodva's big serves and returns, which came at a scorching pace and kicked up virtually over the Indian's head. The high balls certainly had Sheetal in a spot and her own shaky first serves and patchy returns compounded her woes.

As the match progressed, Amanmuradova cut down on her unforced errors and played her ground strokes with lot more assurance and power to end the Indian's challenge.

The first set virtually went with breaks before Amanmuradova, tightened the grip with a decisive one in the 11th game, and then served out the set. The second saw a sparse crowd rally behind Sheetal, who had slumped to a 1-4 deficit. She rallied to crack her rival in the sixth game and narrowed the gap on her serve at 3-4. Amanmuradova, however, stayed unfazed and notched up a winning break in the ninth game.

Chennai's Samrita Sekhar, who was the lone Indian in the quarterfinals at the Chennai tournament, made a quick exit as National champion Isha Lakhani took her apart quickly at 6-3, 6-0.

Isha thus joined three more Indians, who included top seed Rushmi Chakravarthi, third seed Sai Jaylakshmi and qualifier Arthi Venkatraman who made the last 16 on the day.

At 29, Arthi certainly is the oldest player in the tournament and the fact that she beat the 17-year-old Iciri, one of the young talents, 6-1, 6-4, speaks volumes for her resilience. Iciri made far too many unforced errors to stay in the match. With her height, reach and uninhibited stroke play, Iciri had a good chance of making further headway in the top half, but she was weighed down by a spate of mistakes, which included a good deal of double faults.

After meekly surrendering the first set at 1-6, Iciri did raise her level to a good extent in the second. Trailing 0-3, the youngster came charging with some great shots on either flank. She levelled at 3-all and took a 4-3 lead on her serve and things certainty looked rosy for her at that stage. In the crucial eighth game, however, she made two more double faults, which put pressure right back on her and she simply cracked.

Arthi then held the serve for a 5-4 lead. Iciri fought with her wall to the back, trying the salvage the set and match, after being forced to three deuces, again with two more double faults, she caved in.

Natalia Dziamidzenka loses

The second seed, Natalia Dziamidzenka of Belarus, after a good start, faded away against her Russian rival Elena Vesnina, who was a semifinalist at Chennai tournament. Vesnina won 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

In another setback, Russian qualifier Juila Vorobieva stunned seventh seed Sonal Phadke 7-5, 6-3. Sonal Phadke became the second Indian seed to fall. Sonal's talent was never in question, but her consistency was. The Pune girl matched stroke for stroke with her ebullient rival and in the slugfest that lasted for 132 minutes, the long limbed Russian teenager out hit her rival. Sonal did pretty well in the first set; trailing 0-3 she charged back to level at three all before Vorobieva shut her out taking the set with another break in the 12th game.

Vorobieva, who raced to a 4-1 lead in the second set, never looked back as she wrapped it up at 6-3 and the match.

The top seed, Rushmi Chakravarthi, began her campaign on a right note moving past Korean qualifier Kim Sun Jin 6-3,6-2 while Sai Jayalakshmy, who is not in the best of form thanks to an injury, made short work of qualifier R. Saiswapna at 6-3,6-0.

The Indonesian Diana Julianto with her workman-like approach demolished another Indian qualifier, Liza Pereira 6-1, 6-3.

One of the best actions came at the fag end of the day as an inspired Eva Hoch of Austria rallied superbly in the decider to stop 17-year-old Ivanna Israliova of Uzbekistan, a semifinalist at Chennai 6-3, 5-7, 7-5. Hoch was on the brink trailing 3-5 in the decider before she hit her way to victory.

The results (Indians unless specified; prefix indicate seedings): Singles (first round): 1-Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Kim Su Jin 6-3, 6-2; Elena Vesnina (Rus) bt 2-Natalia Dziamidzenka 4-6, 6-4, 6-2; 3-Sai Jayalakshmy bt R. Saiswapna 6-3, 6-4; 5-Akgul Amanmuradova (Uzb) bt Sheetal Goutham 7-5, 6-3; Po- Kuen Lam (HK) bt Ryoko Watanabe (Jpn) 6-1, 3-6, 6-0; Diana Julianto (Ina) bt Liza Pereira 6-1, 6-3; Isha Lakhani bt Samrita Sekhar 6-3, 6-0; Arthi Venkatraman bt Iciri Rai 6-1, 6-4; Eva Hoch (Aut) bt Ivanna Israliova (Uzb) 6-3, 5-7, 7-5.

Doubles (first round): Nandini Perumal/T. Yamini bt Ashelesh Lokhande/Varsha Shivashankar 6-4, 6-2; Wilawan Choptang/Montinee Tangphong (Tha) bt Diana Julianto (Ina)/Radhika Tulpule 5-7, 6-1, 6-2.

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