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Sanaa does well in S. Africa

NEW DELHI NOV. 14. She beat the champion of the tournament, but not in the championship round. That was the experience of the young Sanaa Bhambri, who made it to the semifinals of the under-14 girls' section in the Nike International Masters tennis event in Sun City, South Africa, recently.

It was a close call for the Delhi girl as she lost 6-3, 1-6, 3-6 to Magdalena Kiszczynska of Poland in the semi-finals of the individual eventSanaa was on par at 3-3 in the decider and did take the next three games to `deuce'. Yet, she could not win the point that mattered in those games played with a `no advantage' rule.

``It was a very good experience. Mr. C.G.K. Bhupathi gave me a few tips, and it was a pleasure to listen to South Africa's No. 1 player, Amanda Coetzer, as she discussed our game with us,'' said the student of the Delhi Public School.

Sanaa had beaten Pauline Bisset of France 6-3, 6-4 and Magda Rybaikova of Slovakia 6-3, 6-0 in the second round and quarterfinals respectively after a bye in the first.

The eventual under-14 winner, Josipa Bek of Croatia, was beaten in the team event by Sanaa.

The other three Indian players could not pull their weight much. Poojashree Venkatesh lost in the under-12 pre-quarterfinals 0-6, 5-7 to Vitalia Djachenko of Russia after beating Maria Bayon of Mexico 7-6, 2-6, 7-5 in the earlier round.

In the boys' section, Jeevan Nedunchezian and Sriram Balaji lost in the first round in the under-14 and under-12 sections to Pilt Arnold of Germany and top-seeded Jordi Samper of Spain respectively. Jeevan had the consolation of winning the losers' final.

In the team event, which was a combined affair of boys and girls, singles and doubles, with the mixed doubles thrown in for tie-break, India lost to Croatia in the super tie-break in the quarterfinals.

After the singles and doubles matches, the score stood tied at 27 games each. Sanaa and Jeevan lost the mixed doubles then at 5-7. India had earlier beaten Italy and Israel to make it to the quarterfinals.

For the captain of the Indian squad, C.G.K. Bhupathi, it was a revelation to study the talent from such close quarters. He observed that the players could develop further as they had good grasp of the nuances of the game.

Overall 55,000 kids had taken part in the tournament in various countries, before the 92 qualified for the international masters event by winning the national masters events in their age group.

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