Sunday, Jun 08, 2003
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Tennis
By Our Sports Reporter
The second seed humbled top seed Prashanth Vijay Sunder of Tamil Nadu 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in an encounter that lasted just over eighty minutes. It was a double delight for Prateek, who in partnership with Manu Bajpai, claimed the under-18 doubles title with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Prashanth and M. Vinod. Second-seeded Asha Nandakumar tasted success in the girls' under-18 singles when she outclassed the third seed, Varsha Shivshankar, also from Karnataka, in straight sets at 7-5, 6-3. Prateek has had a patchy week of tennis. The Mysore lad, who had an undistinguished year at the Bhupathi's Tennis Academy before rejoining his earlier coach Nagaraj at Mysore, played some percentage tennis. There were no frills. Chasing all that the top seed threw at him, Prateek clawed his way back into the match after losing the first set at 4-6. Prashanth served hard and incisively in the first set but it was again his serves that let him down in the later sets. Prashanth broke Prateek in the third game of the first set, in which the latter even committed a double fault. In the second, Prateek went 3-1 up with a break in the fourth game and repeated the act in the sixth to sit pretty at 5-1. Prashanth though did break back but failed to hold onto his serve to lose the set 2-6. The decider proved a no contest as Prateek once again took a handy 5-1 lead with breaks in the second and sixth games. With a flurry of passing shots on either flanks, Prateek kept the pressure on and the Tamil Nadu youngster failed to handle it, despite a fine display in the seventh game in which he broke Prateek at 15. Nothing could deter Prateek on this day as Prashanth twice netted his forehand and then double faulted to give Prateek the set and match at 6-2. Varsha's stunning win over Vandana Murali in the semifinals gave one a lot to look forward to. Sadly though, the lanky girl's game simply disintegrated in the final. The match was bereft of rallies as both the protagonists erred badly. Neither of them served well and with Varsha compounding her woes with too many mishits, Asha cruised along without much of a hiccup. Having run up a 3-0 lead in the first with a breaks in the first and third game it looked easy sailing for Asha before Varsha tightened up her game to level the scores at 3-3. Varsha even led 5-4 at one stage before Asha unleashed a couple of telling down the line shots that brooked no response. A break in the 11th game gave Asha the leeway to clinch the set at 7-5. Asha upped her game in the second and took a 5-1 lead before Varsha made amends with a break back. But the recovery was nipped effectively with two deep essays that only saw Varsha net her returns to give Asha victory on a platter. The Minister of State for Municipal Administration, Kumar Bangarappa gave away the prizes. The results (finals): Boys under-18 singles: S. Prateek (Kar) bt Prashanth Vijay Sunder (TN) 4-6, 6-2, 6-2. Boys under-18 doubles: S. Prateek & Manu Bajpai (Kar) bt Prashanth Vijay Sunder & M. Vinod (TN) 6-4, 6-3. Girls under-18 singles: Asha Nandakumar (Kar) bt Varsha Shivshankar (Kar) 7-5, 6-3.
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