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Tennis
By Kalyan Ashok
DOUBLE(S) DELIGHT: The second seed Gregory Carraz of France (left) who won a double crown in the Indian Oil Servo-ATP Challenger-2003 in Bangalore on Saturday, poses with his doubles partner and compatriot Rodolphe Cadart.
It was indeed a double delight for Carraz, when he later partnered countryman, Rodolphe Cadart to claim the doubles title as well. The French pair beat Yves Allegro of Switzerland and Jean Francois Bachelot of France 6-4, 6-4 in a lopsided final. It was a memorable outing for the 151-ranked Carraz as the triumphs at Bangalore Challenger made him richer by $4,375 and he also claimed 50 singles points and 25 for doubles. It has been such a long road to success for Carraz, who made his last Challenger final at Milan in last November, where he lost in a tie-breaker decider (8-10) to Maria Ancich of Croatia and there were certainly few moments, when the old ghosts were set to haunt all over again in the match, but he exorcised them with positive play.
High quality fare
In terms of contest, it was a high quality fare, not only from just from Carraz but also from the plucky Belgian Elseneer, ranked 183, who played some great backhand volleys. Elseneer also served as hard as Carraz, but the Frenchman proved lot more steadier, when playing big points and he had the ability to control the pace and outhit Elseneer. Carraz's serve and volley routine reached a new high in this contest, and though he did serve up few double faults, his second serve was rock steady and he was able to make his rival play the wrong ones when needed. Breaks didn't come easy in the match and Carraz really had to earn each point on the way as Elseneer's return of serve was quite solid, but Carraz, when he had opportunity, grabbed his chances and played himself to winning position with a strong focus. Elseneer opened on a shaky note with double faults, before recovering the lost round to hold the serve. He was again in trouble in the third game also. Carraz on the other hand, was stroking sweetly and serving with power and precision as he kept holding the serve till 3-all and then forced what turned to be a set-winning break in the seventh game. Two double faults and wide return put Eleseneer down at 15-40, but he rallied to force a deuce and held a game point before slamming a forehand out. After the second deuce, there was keen contest at the net with both trying out-volley each other and Carraz won that rally with backhand cross court winner and seized a break point again .This time, he made no mistake as he had Elseneer miscuing a forehand again. Carraz, holding the serve, stretched his lead to 5-3 and shut the set at 6-4. Elseneer came up with a spirited display in the second set. He was putting his backhand to devastating effect and served big to hold his own after another shaky start. He slumped to 0-40 in the first game after two double faults. But the Belgian sunk a drop volley and another perfect backhand volley to force a deuce and on the second deuce he held the serve with Carraz netting a forehand. Elseneer warded off another break point in the fifth game also and turned pressure right back on Carraz in the sixth game which saw the Frenchman trail 0-30 with two doublefaults. But Carraz was able to pull with strong second serve and won the game later with two aces. Carraz again was in trouble in the 12th game, conceding a break point with a doublefault and once again his second serve came to the rescue and he held on to push the set into a tie-breaker. In the tie-breaker, Carraz dropped the first two points as he punched a return out and made a doublefault. But he took the next five points in-a-row with solid returns which brooked no answer from Elseneer. The Belgian rallied to cut the deficit to 4-5 before running out of steam. A forehand volley winner put Carraz on match point and Elseneer netted backhand volley to signal his surrender. "I am very happy indeed today to win a Challenger after such a long wait. I thought it might slip away when I blew those points in the first game of the second set but I was able to get back and I think I played much better than what I did against Harsh Mankad yesterday and Elseneer is a much stronger player. This victory is very important not in terms of money, but it has put me back on track. I had an eight-month lay off from the game after a back injury in 1999. I slipped to 600 in the ranking and then made it to 124 early this year and I am playing well at this level and I hope to get higher'', said an elated Carraz who hails from St. Michele D'demaurienne in the French Alps where every second man is a good skier. The results: Finals (prefix indicates seeding): Singles: 2-Gregory Carraz (Fra) bt 8-Gilles Elseneer (Bel) 6-4, 7-6 (7-4). Doubles: Rodolphe Cadart & Gregory Carraz (Fra) bt Yves Allegro (Sui) & Jean Francois Bachelot (Fra) 6-4, 6-4.
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