Sport
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Tennis
Sunil quells Ritesh's challenge
By Kamesh Srinivasan
NEW DELHI, DEC. 11. The Asian junior champion Sunil Kumar, played the big points well in quelling the challenge from qualifier Ritesh Chitlangiya 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of the DSCL National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Tuesday.
After the efforts last week on the same courts when he was tackling juniors, it was not that easy for the left-handed Sunil to tune for the bigger challenges straightaway.
With the opponent playing close to his best, Sunil was in a spot of bother, like when he faced two breakpoints in the tenth game of the first set, and later when he was down 2-4 in the second set.
However, the Chandigarh lad, adept in getting out of trouble quickly, improved his performance to sail through in straight sets.
On a cold morning, Ritesh Chitlangiya was fired up for the challenge, but was unable to capitalise on the openings that he created for himself with his vibrant game. He messed up three gamepoints at 4-2, 40-0 in the second set, and his game collapsed thereafter.
It should be a lively match on Wednesday when Sunil challenges the top-seeded Rohan Bopanna, who has been in good form of late in the international circuit.
The strongly-built Bopanna had beaten Sunil for the loss of four games in the quarterfinals of the $10,000 ITF Futures tournament in Indore recently, but it remains to be seen how well the two handle the pressure.
Another interesting encounter will be the one between the second-seeded Mustafa Ghouse and Vijay Kannan. The latter dismissed qualifier Gursharan Singh for the loss of three games in conserving his energy for the more serious challenge. In a battle of two former national junior champions, who play an all-round attacking game, qualifier Akshay Vishal Rao prevailed over Vijayendra Laad, in a battle that lasted two hours and 17 minutes.
After Akshay had called the shots in the first set with leads of 3-0 and 5-4, Laad had the upperhand in the second when he led 4-1. However, Akshay played like a man possessed and reeled off the next five games, converting the third breakpoint in clinching the vital ninth game on way to a 7-5, 6-4 triumph.
It will be a different challenge for Akshay when he meets Nitin Kirtane in the second round. The defending champion and third-seed, Nitin warmed up with a straightforward victory over another qualifier, Nihal Advani.
Kamala Kannan put his big serve and powerful forehand to good use in powering past qualifier Harshit Sharma for the loss of two games. The eighth-seeded Kamala Kannan will have a match on hand when he takes on the seasoned Vasudeva Reddy.
Shivang Mishra and Ashutosh Singh provided an entertaining fare before the former prevailed with his more attacking style of play, that may be put to an acid test against Ajay Ramaswami in the second round.
In the women's section, wild card entrant Ankita Bhambri sweated it out in two hours and 47 minutes for a 3-6, 7- 5, 6-4 victory over qualifier Sai Swapna Ramakrishna. The effort may serve as a good preparation for her in the second round match against the third-seeded Sonal Phadke.
The results:
Men: Singles (first round): Sunil Kumar bt Ritesh Chitlangiya 6-4, 6-4; Kamala Kannan bt Harshit Sharma 6-1, 6-1; Nitin Kirtane bt Nihal Advani 6-3, 6-2; Akshay Vishal Rao bt Vijayendra Laad 7-5, 6-4; Nipun Gupta bt Sandeep Singh 6-2, 7-6 (7-5); Anant Sitaram bt Pratim Parekh 1-6, 6-0, 6-2; Vinod Sridhar bt Chandrasekhar Mohanty 6-0, 6-1; Shivang Mishra bt Ashutosh Singh 6-3, 6-4; Vijay Kannan bt Gursharan Singh 6-2, 6- 1.
Women: Singles (first round): Nandini Perumal bt Alice Joy 7-5, 6-4; Archana Venkataraman bt Karishma Patel 6-3, 6-3; Ankita Bhambri bt Sai Swapna Ramakrishna 3-6 7-5, 6-4; S.K. Tara bt Sandra Sasidharan 6-3 6-2; Sai Jayalakshmy bt Anupama Rajur 6-2, 6-1; Samrita Sekar bt Ragini Vimal 6-3, 6-3; Sheetal Goutham bt Preeti Shravan 6-1, 6-1; Lata Assudani bt Iciri Rai 4-6, 6-2, 6-3; Radhika Tulpule bt Isha Chopra 6-2, 6-2.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Men: Vasudeva Reddy/Vinod Sridhar bt Parantap Chaturvedi/Punna Vishal 6-1, 6-2; Vijay Kannan/Ajay Ramaswami bt Nipun Gupta/Abhishek Jagnani 6-0, 6-2; S.K. Shivshankar/Vijayendra Laad bt C.D. Ajay/Mohammed Yasser Arafat 3-6, 7-6 (10/8), 6-3; Sunil Kumar/Rishi Sridhar bt Ashutosh Singh/Gurmehar Singh 6-3, 6-4; Kamala Kannan/R. Arun Prakash bt Abhishek Tamhane/Kedar Tembe 6- 4, 6-3.
Women: Sai Jayalakshmy/Rushmi Chakravarti bt Sasha Abraham/Preeti Rao 6-2, 6-0; Archana Venkataraman/Arthi Venkataraman bt Anupama Rajur/Chirashanthi Rajur 6-0, 6-2; Radhika Mandke/Sonal Phadke bt Mansi Modi/Punam Reddy 6-3, 6-1; Alice Joy/Sai Swapna Ramakrishna bt Krushmi Chheda/Sharanya Pattabi 6-4, 7-5; Vishika Chhetri/Medini Sharma bt Samrita Sekar/Olexandra Verkhnyatska 6-3, 6-2; Shruti Dhawan/Radhika Tulpule bt Nishta Yadav/Pragya Yadav 6-0, 6-0; Ankita Bhambri/Sania Mirza bt S.K. Tara/Karishma Patel 6-1, 6-2; Liza Pereira/Sheetal Goutham bt Nandini Perumal/Geeta Manohar 7- 5, 6-2.
Boys: Rohan Gajjar/Amanjot Singh bt Tushar Liberhan/Divij Sharan 7-6 (7-4), 6-2; Arjun Goutham/Jayanth Janardhan bt Anantha Bhaskar/Sujay Mahadevan 6-3, 6-4; Rishi Behl/Parantap Chaturvedi bt Vivek Bhakuni/Varun Giri 6-3, 6-4; Nihal Advani/Abhay Prakash bt Dhruv Kumar/Manoj Kumar Sewa 6-2, 6-3; Chatwinder Singh/Saurabh Singh bt Punna Vikas/Punna Vishal 7-6 (7-5), 6-2; Somdev Dev Varman/Jaco T. Mathew bt Aditya Madkekar/Indra Kumar Mahajan 6-1, 6-1.
Girls: Nandini Perumal/Preeti Shravan bt Swetha Devraj/Alice Joy 6-4, 7-6 (7-3); Isha Lakhani/Megha Vakharia bt Lata Asssudani/Rati Kumar 6-3, 6-0; Marutha Devi/Kamini Murugaboopathy bt Sagarika Phadke/Varsha Shivshankar 6-4, 6-1; Karthiki Bhat/Iciri Rai bt Krushmi Chheda/Sandra Sasidharan 6-3, 6-2; Sharanya Pattabi/Nivedita Venkatesh bt Punam Reddy/Mansi Modi 6-3, 6-4; Vandana Murali/Ragini Vimal bt Sandri Gangotri/V. Bhavana 6-4, 7-5.
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