Tuesday, Apr 08, 2003
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Tennis
By Nandakumar Marar
Israel's Shahar Peer plays a double-fisted return against Kamani Murugabhoopathy of India in their first round match of ITF women's futures tennis tournament in Mumbai on Monday. — Photo: Vivek Bendre
Frenetic pace took a backseat as the Israeli qualifier switched into control mode against India's Kamini Murugabhoopathy who had nothing to lose in the $10,000 International Tennis Federation's Women's Futures. The former sneaked into the singles second round in the decider on the opening day of the Mumbai leg, sponsored by Mother's Recipe, on Monday. With heavyweights like top seed Manisha Malhotra winning without breaking into a sweat under a merciless sun, the field was open for lesser lights to be heard among of crowd of names dotting the ITF circuit. Shahar won the tight contest 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 against lucky loser Kamini at the Shivaji Park Gymkhana courts. The Indian nursed ambitions of matching her superior rival stroke for stroke before coming to grips with reality at this level. The Israeli, who appeared psyched up for tougher opposition, set a torrid pace in the first set. The haste to finish off points may have been influenced by the desire to ward off negative effects of the heat. Kamini found herself short of weapons to counter the onslaught, ending up broken thrice. Shahar fed off the pace against a steady Indian retriever, picking up points with deep returns. The match took a new turn in the second set as Kamini grew in her rival's estimation without doing anything radically different from the first set. This time it was the qualifier from Israeli who hit a roadblock, losing points because of wide and long returns. Her opponent's slowing down tactics also disturbed her. There was a bounce in the Indian's stride after drawing level, aided by two breaks, before Shahar realised the dangerous effects of her generosity and closed out the match. The 18-year-old Krishnan Tennis Centre trainee from Chennai, getting a look-in among the biggies in the main draw as a lucky loser in place of Sheetal Goutham, appeared in mood to fight to the finish. Kamini broke back twice after losing three games on serve in an error-prone decider before finding herself at the receiving end against a very focused Israeli, who next runs into Thailand's Wilawan Choptang. Five Indians — Isha Lakhani, Samrita Sekar, Liza Pereira, Preeti Rao and Arthi Venkataraman — booked main draw berths, after going through the qualifiers grind, along with Shahar, American Georgette Wright and Czech Republic's Ludmila Rozsivalova. Wildcards Manisha Malhotra, seeded number one, won her opener with ease, while Shruti Dhawan went down fighting in three sets to Choptang. Archana Venkataraman has gained the third wildcard. The results (Indians unless specified): 1-Manisha Malhotra bt Geeta Manohar 6-1, 7-4; Zsuzsanna Babos (Hun) bt Preeti Rao 6-1, 6-1; Franziska Etzel (Ger) bt Marina Anniutin (Isr) 6-4, 6-2; Julia Vorobieva (Rus) bt Samrita Sekar 6-2, 7-5; Shahar Peer (Isr) bt Kamini Murugabhoopathy 6-2, 3-6, 6-3; Chattida Thimjapo (Tha) bt Po-Kuen Lam (HK) 6-4, 6-2; 8-Wilawan Choptang (Tha) bt Shruti Dhawan 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
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