The Hindu : Allegro puts the skids under Prakash

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 01, 2003

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Allegro puts the skids under Prakash

By Kamesh Srinivasan

Yves Allegro making a forehand return en route to victory over Prakash Amritraj in the pre-quarterfinals of the Challenger tennis tournament in New Delhi on Wednesday. — Photo: Sandeep Saxena

NEW DELHI APRIL 30. Experience cannot be gained in a hurry. It comes only with time. Prakash Amritraj had the game but not the experience to tame the 243rd ranked Yves Allegro of Switzerland in the pre-quarterfinals of the Indian Oil Servo $ 25,000 Challenger tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Wednesday.

The 19-year-old Prakash, ranked 641 in the world, missed his chances including a setpoint in the tie-break as he went down 6-7 (6-8), 4-6 after competing on par with the seasoned Swiss pro in an hour and 29 minutes of entertaining tennis.

A few loose shots, and a couple of doublefaults when he was down a setpoint in the tie-break and then a breakpoint in the first game of the second set ensured that Prakash boarded an early flight back to Los Angeles.

Up against an all-rounder of considerable ability who served and volleyed with rare assurance, Prakash needed to be razor sharp. More importantly, he could not afford to miss the sitters which he did.

It was Prakash who held the initiative as he saved a breakpoint in the first game and broke Allegro in the fifth game. It was another matter that he had to face that breakpoint as the umpire over-ruled his ace. At 4-2 Prakash smacked a backhand passing shot down the line on Allegro's serve and the Swiss served a doublefault to be down 0-30. Allegro showed what he was capable of at this stage as he came up with a crisp volley and three big serves including two aces to take that game.

Prakash was not getting his big first serves, but served well to be up 5-3. However, while serving for the set at 5-4 Prakash could not answer two rousing backhand winners from Allegro that saw him face a breakpoint. He dropped that game to lose the edge.

Into the tie-break, that was forced after the two held their serves comfortably in the next two games, Prakash took a 4-2 lead. He hit a backhand passing shot to be up 5-3, and a service winner fetched him his only setpoint at 6-5. Two strong serves from Allegro that were returned out saw the Swiss getting his first set point, and Prakash surrendered it all with a doublefault.

Allegro started the second set with a breathtaking passing shot after a rally to win the first point on Prakash's serve. A netted half volley saw Prakash face two breakpoints. He saved one and dropped the game with a doublefault on the second.

Prakash hardly dropped a point on his serve in the next four service games, but that was hardly any consolation as Allegro was serving equally well to cruise home without any drama.

``I played a few bad points when I had the ball on my racquet. I had my chances but did not take them,'' said Prakash, who served five aces and four doublefaults, to his opponent's tally of 12 aces and five doublefaults.

The service superiority told in the end, as Allegro had more aces to show, apart from five service winners. In fact, Allegro started the match with three aces in the first game and served three aces in the fourth game of the second set to hold serve from 0-30. It was a weapon that proved handy.

Prakash returned better and had three return winners to one by his opponent.

Allegro was too good at the net with 12 volley winners, to 10 by Prakash. The Swiss had five passing shots to two by Prakash. Both were equally erratic, but the Indian youngster made the mistakes on the key points.

The biggest difference was that Allegro did not bat an eye-lid in smashing the put-aways while Prakash paid for missing a few sitters.

``I go back to play the finals of Collegiate tennis. I will become a professional soon and come back as a better player,'' said Prakash who collected five ATP points and 430 dollars.

In other matches, the second-seeded Gregory Carraz of France, the champion of the event in Bangalore last week, recovered from being a set down to beat Dmitry Vlasov of Russia.

Qualifier Jonathan Erlich of Israel saved a matchpoint in the tenth game of the second set, following two doublefaults in a row, to score a 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4) victory over Yuri Schukin of Russia. Incidentally, it was the fifth successive three-setter for Erlich in the tournament in as many matches, including three in the qualifying event.

The top-seeded John Van Lottum of the Netherlands prevailed in a second set tie-break against Arvind Parmar to meet Danai Udomchoke of Thailand.

The Thai had a walkover as the sixth-seeded Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei returned home with an upset stomach. Rohan Bopanna had lost to Udomchoke after a good start and may be cursing his luck, as he would have got into the quarterfinals with a win over the Thai, who had reportedly booked his return ticket for Tuesday evening itself. The win over Bopanna has eventually been worth a minimum of 12 ATP points and 730 dollars for Udomchoke.

Well, Indian tennis is a classic case of missed chances.

Vijay-Ajay duo loses

In the doubles quarterfinals, Vijay Kannan and Ajay Ramaswamy saved a matchpoint in the second set tie-break to force the decider against the third-seeded Yuri Schukin of Russia and Orest Tereshchuk of Ukraine, but could not sustain their good work.

The top-seeded Luke Bourgeois and Nathan Healey of Australia gave a walk-over as the former was ill against Radoslav Lukaev of Bulgaria and Dmitry Vlasov of Russia.

The results:

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): John Van Lottum (Ned) bt Arvind Parmar (GBR) 6-3, 7-6 (7-5); Danai Udomchoke (Tha) w.o. Yen-Hsun Lu (Tpe); Rodolphe Cadart (Fra) bt Maximilian Abel (Ger) 3-6, 6-1, 6-2; Louis Vosloo (RSA) bt Bjorn Rehnquist (Swe) 6-4, 6-3; Ivo Heuberger (Swui) bt Andy Ram (Isr) 6-4, 6-4; Yves Allegro (Sui) bt Prakash Amritraj 7-6 (8-6), 6-4; Jonathan Erlich (Isr) bt Yuri Schukin (Rus) 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4); Gregory Carraz (Fra) bt Dmitry Vlasov (Rus) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Radoslav Lukaev (Bul)/Dmitry Vlasov (Rus) w.o. Luke Bourgeois/Nathan Healey (Aus); Yuri Schukin (Rus)/Orest Tereshchuk (Ukr) bt Vijay Kannan/ Ajay Ramaswami 7-5, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3; Yves Allegro (Sui)/Jean-Francois Bachelot (Fra) bt Doug ohaboy (US)/Tuomas Ketola (Fin) 6-3, 6-2.

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