AP 1 and TN 1 prove their superiority

By Our Sports Reporter

KOZHIKODE, APRIL 25. Talking about beach volleyball, Mohammed Ghouse had said on last Saturday, ``It is like a marriage you know; the co- ordination between the two players are very important - they should be like a man and wife.''

Ghouse's honeymoon with National beach volleyball still continues, seven years after making his debut, as his new partnership with Rajkumar proved successful for Andhra 1 in the fifth National beach volleyball championship here on Tuesday night.

It had taken some time for the two in the tournament to combine perfectly as a team. The pair defeated Andhra 2, comprising D. Sridhar and Kasi Vishwanath Raju 12-10, 12-10 in 62 minutes.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu 1, represented by P. Rathi and Kamakoti, won the women's title, beating Andhra 12-5, 12-9 in just 22 minutes.

With this triumph, Ghouse has won four National titles, and proved once again that the 31-year-old APSRTC employee from Hyderabad is in a class of his own in Indian beach volleyball. The final was not quite as close as the scoreline would suggest. The inexperienced AP 2 pair was too inconsistent to force a third set. Its jump serves were not that effective, and messed up passes frequently. Ghouse came up with nice placings and well- measured smashes at crucial junctures, while Rajkumar, an intelligent player, had an excellent game, doing a good job at the net and back court defence.

The women's final was disappointingly one-sided, with Andhra crumbling against a steady display from the strong-serving and athletic Tamil Nadu girls. Evangelina could hardly get her serves right, and Andhra could hardly get its first passes right. The saving grace was a few fine serves from Ramadevi. The Chennai girls, making their debut in beach volleyball, impressed with their passes and placings.

In the semifinals held in the morning, the AP women had in fact beaten Tamil Nadu 1. But the Chennai girls, however, made full use of the double elimination system employed here - the losing side gets another chance before bowing out - and won the second semifinal against Assam 3, comprising Manimala Hazarika and Madhumita Saikya, which was visibly tired playing its fourth match in the morning under a blazing sun. Tamil Nadu won 15-12.

Ramadevi was in good form for AP in the first semifinal. She packed a lot of power in her serves and more than made up for her partner's lapses early. Her deep placings also fetched a few vital points. The Tamil Nadu girls also made a few unforced errors as well. Rathi, in particular, looked out of sorts. From 8-all, AP surged ahead and conceded just one more point, before wrapping up the game in 20 minutes.

As Rathi and Kamakoti started their wait to find out their rival in the second semifinal, Manimala and Madhumita were doing their best to get Assam 3 back into the competition, after suffering a loss in an earlier round, they played very well to force their way into the semifinals. When Assam 3 faced Tamil Nadu 1, it had beaten Tamil Nadu 2 (P. Rathi Devi and G. Gayathri), Kerala 2 (Seema Michael and M.S. Sunaina) and Bengal (Sonali Kundu and Sayamali Manik) en route.

In the semifinal too, the Assamese girls began well and were leading 9-3 at one stage, as the stocky Manimala and the diminutive Madhumita covered the ground well with great enthusiasm. But from 3-9 down, Tamil Nadu began a fightback as Assam paid dearly for its poor judgement of Rathi's serves, and reduced the lead to 8-9. With Kamakoti's deep serves and Rathi's fine placings making life difficult for an increasingly tired looking Assam, Tamil Nadu went 14-11 ahead and won in 21 minutes.

The men's semifinals held in the morning, also between AP 1 and AP 2 - the two finalists, was a huge disappointment, as the former faced little resistance in a 15-5 victory. Ghouse was in superb form, giving an allround display. With Rajkumar also giving him adequate support, and both Kasi and Sridhar struggling to find their rhythm on the other side, it was easy for the senior AP team, which won in 20 minutes. AP 2 then beat All India State Bank 1 (P. Mohan and M. Balaji) 15-13 to reach the final.

The results:

Men (final): AP 1 (Mohammed Ghouse & Rajkumar) bt AP 2 (D. Sridhar & Kasi Vishwanath Raju) 12-10, 12- 10. Semifinals: AP 1 bt AP 2 15-5; AP 2 bt AISB 1 (P. Mohan & M. Balaji) 15-13. Loser's final: AISB 1 bt Central Excise (Selvaraj & Shanmugha Sundaram) 15-6.

Fourth round: AISB 1 (P. Mohan & M. Balaji) bt TN 1 (Ramamoorty & Arumugam) 15-11.

Third round: Central Excise (Selvaraj & Shanmugha Sundaram) bt Assam 1 (Bishnu Basumatary & Binod Narjahry) 15-5; Assam 1 bt TN 2 (Lewison Paulraj & Vivek) 15-7.

Women (final): TN 1 (P. Rathi & Kamakoti) bt AP (Ramadevi Evangelina Paul) 12-5, 12-9. Semifinals: AP bt TN 1 15-9; TN 1 bt Assam 3 (Manimala Hazarika & Madhumita Saikya) 15-12. Loser's final: Assam 3 bt Bengal (Sonali Kundu & Sayamali Manik) 15-13.

Fourth round: Assam 3 bt Bengal 15-10.

Third round: Assam 3 bt Kerala 2 (Seema Michael & M.S. Sunaina) 15-4; Bengal bt Goa 1 (Betty D'Silva & Milagrina Mascarenhas) 15- 7.

Second round: Assam 3 bt Tamil Nadu 2 (P. Rathi Devi & G. Gayathri) 15-13.

Monday's results:

Men (fourth round): AP 1 (Ghouse & Rajkumar) bt Central Excise (Selvaraj & Shanmugha Sundaram) 15-6.

Third round: Tamil Nadu 2 (Lewison Paulraj & Vivek) bt Assam 2 (M. Ahmed & Porash Protim) 15-13.

Women (third round): AP (Ramadevi & Evangelina) bt Kerala 2 (Seema & M.S. Sony) 15-4; Tamil Nadu 1 (P. Rathi Devi & Kamakoti) bt Bengal (Sonali Kundu & Sayamali Manik) 15-8.

Second round: Goa 1 (Betty D' Silva & Milagrina Mascarenhas) bt Assam 1 (Sikha Dutta & Nittu Gogoi) 15- 0.

First round: Goa 1 bt Assam 2 (M. Deori & A. Barua).

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