Date:15/06/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/06/15/stories/2003061503601700.htm

Sport - Tennis

Doubles double for Indians

NEW DELHI JUNE 14. The Indian juniors asserted their class, albeit in doubles, as they won the boys' and girls' titles in the group `I' ITF junior tennis tournament in Frankfurt on Saturday.

The second-seeded Karan Rastogi and Somdev Dev Varman beat Hyun Joon Suk of Korea and Chris Letcher of Australia 6-4, 6-4 in the doubles final. The Indian duo fought back from 1-4 down in the second set to cruise home in straight sets.

Karan and Somdev had beaten Bastian Koch and Peter Steinberger of Germany 1-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 in the semifinals.

Karan, however, lost his singles semifinals 2-6, 2-6 to Juan Pablo Amado of Argentina.

The Indian girls, the proud semifinalists of the French Open junior event, Sania Mirza and Sanaa Bhambri also did their confidence a world of good by clinching the doubles title in style with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Maren Kassens of Germany and Alla Kudryavtseva of Australia.

It was the second group `I' tournament in which Karan and Somdev along with Sania and Sanaa had swept the doubles titles for India, following a similar achievement in Japan recently.

The Indian juniors will now move to another tournament in Germany, a group `IV' event on grass next week, to get ready for the bigger events in Roehampton and Wimbledon.