The Hindu : Megha upsets Rushmi, books quarterfinal berth

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 20, 2003

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Megha upsets Rushmi, books quarterfinal berth

By Kalyan Ashok

BANGALORE Feb. 19. When chips are down it takes good sense and strong nerve to overcome the odds. The 18-year-old Megha Vakharia had all that right stuff in her and they came in handy at the right time as she pulled off the biggest upset of the Reliance ITF Women's Circuit tennis championship here on Wednesday, knocking out the top seed, Rushmi Chakravarthi, 6-4, 6-3 after trailing 1-4 in the first set.

With this memorable win, which came in 82 minutes, Megha entered the quarterfinals. The only other Indian to make last eight was the third seed Sai Jayalakshmy.

Megha, with a couple of ITF Junior event titles under her belt, holds a lot of promise and though not a big built girl, she is very agile and plays a solid all round game. Her choice of strokes and tactics provided a solid base for Megha to launch calculated counter assault as the big hitting Rushmi ran up a 4-1 lead in the first set.

When she should have really stepped on the gas, Rushmi for inexplicable reasons, seemed to ease off the pedal and the slowing down of pace was not at all a good strategy as it gave Megha chance to regroup and change the tack. Megha began counter punching with definite purpose and she played with lot of variation and some of the angles she tried were simply superb and left Rushmi groping the dark. Megha took five games in a row to win the set signalling her great come back.

The reverse clearly shook Rushmi, who still struggled to get her act together again and Megha wasted no time as she broke rival in the third game and though she found herself in a spot after being forced deuce on her serves couple of time, she held them all to raced to a 5-3 lead.

There was little that Rushmi could do stop her rival's triumphant charge and Megha sealed her win slotting a neat backhand volley.

"It is always nice to beat someone who is the top seed. I but didn't panic after being 1-4 down in the first set, and played sensibly to turn pressure back on Rushmi," said an elated Megha, who now meets Monntinee Tangphong of Thailand, who is ranked much below her at 824.

Tangphong made the last eight at the expense of her Indonesian rival, Diana Julianto (6-1, 6-3). Another Thai contender who made the quarterfinals was the eighth seed Wilawan Choptang who rallied to down Po- Kuen Lam of Hong Kong at 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 in the last tie of the day.

An all-Indian clash saw Sai Jayalakshmy outclassing qualifier Arthi Venkatraman 6-2, 6-1. Sai, has the style and sure can belt solid ground strokes and there was nothing that she could do wrong today as she took her rival's challenge apart with some sweetly timed winners on both the flanks.

It was the end of the road for other Indian girls, Isha Lakhani, who began on a rousing note against Russian Elena Vesnina. She was out slugged in a long tussle that lasted nearly 2-1/2 hours. Isha took the first at 6-1 but the Russian girl with her steady backcourt play gained the upper hand. As the match wore on, Isha began making unforced errors and her court slackened a good deal and Elena, sensing a turnaround, simply stayed and played on and on before the Indian wilted finally.

The fourth seed, Da-Jung Hong, wasn't that quick off the block against Archana Venkatraman but once she found her rhythm the Korean outplayed her rival at 6-2, 6-2.

A lot was expected from Geeta Manohar but the hard-hitting Hyderabad girl failed to break past the Julia Vorobieva of Russia, who romped home 6-3, 6-4.

The fifth seed, Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan, survived an early onslaught from Eva Hoch of Austria and prevailed at 7-5,6-2. Amanmuradova seized a decisive break in the 11th game and took the first set at 7-5. The second one was a stroll in the park for the Uzbek who raced to a 4-1 lead with barrage of hard hit winners. Hoch ran out of steam and sputtered to a quick halt at 2-6.

Quarterfinal line-up: Megha Vakharia vs. Montinee Tangphong; Wilawan Choptang vs. Da-Jung Hong; Akgul Amanmuradova vs. Elena Vesnina; Sai Jayalakshmy vs. Julia Vorobieva.

Two Indian pairs, Iciri Rai and Preeti Rao and the top seeds, Sai Jayalakshmy and Rushmi Chakravarthi advanced to the quarterfinals in doubles.

The results (Indians unless specified; prefix indicates seedings): singles (second round): Megha Vakharia bt 1-Rushmi Chakravarthi 6-4, 6-3; 3-Sai Jayalakshmy bt Arthi Venkatraman 6-2, 6-1; 4-Da-Jung Hong (Kor) bt Archana Venkatraman 6-2, 6-2; 5-Akgul Amanmuradova (Uzb) bt Eva Hoch (Aut) 7-5, 6-2; Elena Vesnina (Rus) bt Isha Lakhani 1-6, 6-3, 6-2; Montinee Tangphong (Tha) bt Diana Julianto (Ina) 6-1, 6-3; Julia Vorobieva (Rus) bt Geeta Manohar 6-2, 6-4; Wilawan Chaptong (Tha) bt Po Kuen Lam (HK) 5-7, 6-1, 6-2.

Doubles (second round): Iciri Rai/Preeti Rao bt Olga Panova/Elena Volobueva (Rus) 6-4, 6-2; Maki Arai (Jpn)/Natalia Dziamdzenka (Blrs) bt Nandini Perumal/T. Yamini 6-0, 6-1; Sheetal Goutham/Shruti Dhawan bt Arthi Venkatraman/Archana Venkatraman 6-0, 1-6, 6-2; Rushmi Chakravarthi/Sai Jayalakshmy bt Sonal Phadke/Isha Lakhani 6-4, 6-0.

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