The Hindu : Young Karan corners attention

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 27, 2003

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Young Karan corners attention

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI APRIL 26. He was quick on his feet, and ducked in a flash, falling on his back. The ball, driven by a fierce backhand from close quarters, obviously directed at him inches above the net, sailed a metre beyond the baseline.

The 16-year-old Karan Rastogi stood up to shake hands with David Sherwood of Britain, and quietly celebrated a 6-2, 6-2 victory in the second round of the qualifying event in the Servo $25,000 Challenger tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday

The moment summed up the ability of the young man, trying to find his feet in the tough world of professional tennis. For, Karan had showed his prowess, the ability to stand his ground among the men, earlier in the day by saving four match points in beating the sixth-seeded Jamie Delgado, ranked 121 in the world in 2001, in a marathon battle 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-0), 6-4.

Karan Rastogi, serving and stroking with whatever intensity his young frame could allow him, was the undisputed hero of the day, but there were many other Indians to share the limelight with him this day.

The 18-year-old Somdev Dev Varman, Tushaar Liberhan and Vishaal Uppal were the other Indians to make it to the final qualifying round. Quite interestingly, none of the Indians will be meeting each other in the third round.

Karan will challenge the third-seeded Luke Bourgeois of Australia for a berth in the main draw. The qualifiers will get two additional ATP points.

Somdev overpowered the fourth-seeded Orest Tereshchuk of Ukraine 7-5, 6-0 and meted out a similar treatment to Ajay Ramaswami 6-4, 6-0 in the second round. He will meet the seventh-seeded Jonathan Erlich of Israel who saved a match point in the second set tie-break against Vinod Sridhar in the first round and weathered another three-setter against Chatwinder Singh in the next.

Vishaal Uppal recovered from being 2-4 in the first set to win the set 6-4 against the second-seeded Fred Hemmes jr. and the Dutch retired thereafter. The gangling young man, playing the best tennis of his career, had little trouble in beating Vijayendra Laad to set up a final qualifying clash Nathan Healey of Australia.

Tushaar Liberhan had a lucky turn, as his opponent, the top-seeded Johan Settergren of Sweden was accommodated into the main draw, as a berth for `special exempt' went vacant. Tushaar beat Vivian Chhetri to set up a final round meeting with Jonathan Marray of Britain.

Marray staved off two matchpoints in the 12th game of the second set to beat the eighth-seeded Mustafa Ghouse 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

While the players came and went, it was an admirable effort by the five chair umpires and 12 linesmen, who conducted 24 matches from morning till late into the evening under the floodlights.

In fact, Nitin Kannamwar, acting as the referee, was quite peeved that the linesmen had to slog it out under the harsh sun, without any rest. There was no option, because of limited man power, and even the stringer Raj Kumar had to double up as a linesman for some matches.

It was a classic case of the organisers being smart enough to put together a big prize money, provide hospitality but not be in a position to give three fresh linesmen per match.

The results (qualifying event):

Second round: Tushar Liberhan bt Vivian Chhetri 6-2, 6-1; Jonathan Marray (GBR) bt Mustafa Ghouse 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4; Vishaal Uppal bt Vijayendra Laad 6-3, 6-1; Nathan Healey (Aus) bt Todor Enev (Bul) 6-4, 6-2; Luke Bourgeois (Aus) bt Luka Gregorc (Slo) 7-6 (7-5), 6-4; Karan Rastogi bt David Sherwood (GBR) 6-2, 6-2; Somdev Dev Varman bt Ajay Ramaswami 6-4, 6-0; Jonathan Erlich (Isr) bt Chatwinder Singh 5-7, 6-1, 6-1.

First round: Vivian Chhetri bt Vivek Satyajit 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; Jonathan Marray bt Nakul Baddpalia 6-0, 6-0; Mustafa Ghouse bt Ajay Shankar 6-0, 6-0; Vishaal Uppal bt Fred Hemmes jr. (Ned) 6-4 (retired); Vijayendra Laad bt Rahul Sankhla 6-0, 6-0; Nathan Healey bt Nishank Mishra 6-1, 6-3; Todor Enev bt Honey Rana 6-0, 6-0; Luke BOurgeois bt Divyanshu Singh 6-1, 6-2; Luka Gregorc bt Trend Aaron (US) 6-0, 6-1; David Sherwood bt Satender Gosain 6-0, 6-0; Karan Rastogi bt Jamie Delgado (GBR) 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-0), 6-4; Somdev Dev Varman bt Orest Tereshchuk (Ukr) 7-5, 6-0; Ajay Ramaswami bt Parantap Chaturvedi 6-0, 6-3; Chatwinder Singh bt Gurmehar Singh 6-1, 3-6, 6-3; Jonathan Erlich bt Vinod Sridhar 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-1).

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