The Hindu : Sunil Kumar advances

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 26, 2003

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Sunil Kumar advances

By Kamesh Srinivasan

Febi Widhiyanto of Indonesia, who beat Hiu Tung Yu of Hong Kong, in action in the ITF Satellite Masters Tennis tournament in New Delhi on Wednesday. — Photo: V.V. Krishnan

NEW DELHI JUNE 25. Sunil Kumar sustained the Indian interest as he stayed in the race for the title with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Hayato Furukawa of Japan in the quarterfinals of the ITF Satellite tennis circuit Masters event at the DLTA Complex here on Wednesday.

The talented left-hander from Chandigarh was not at his fluent best, but he did not break into a sweat even on a humid morning, as the Japanese challenge was feeble to say the least. In any case Sunil was ranked 537 to Furukawa's 1100, but the good thing was that he was able to assert himself.

Quite understandably, everyone looks tired and eager to go home. It has been quite an arduous journey for four weeks in energy sapping conditions, and it was time for those who had not done much thus far to make a final mark.

Though it may not exactly be firing arrows on the back of soldiers who are running away from the battle field, the winners could not be blamed for making capital of a welcome situation to gain some invaluable ATP points.

The talented left-hander from Chandigarh, who has won a Futures title at the same venue, Sunil would be keen to further his run, but he will have a small obstacle to cross in the form of the top-seeded Prakash Amritraj, ranked below Sunil at 618 on the ATP computer.

Prakash lost the doubles semifinals in partnership with cousin Stephen 10-12 in the second set tie-break, with the pair missing a set point in the process, against the Ratiwatanas from Thailand, Sonchat and Sanchai.

However, he had it on a platter in singles, as his quarterfinal opponent Vinod Sridhar had expressed his inability to take the courts because of a painful shoulder.

Vinod's plight was understandable as he had lost two of his three earlier quarterfinals in the circuit to Prakash. He was perhaps reluctant to have a hat-trick of defeat inflicted on him.

Sunil has not played Prakash thus far, and the 20-year-old will be keen to showcase his ability once again. The youngster has won three matches in a row for the first time in the circuit, and may look to sustain the run by landing the knock-out punch on Prakash, who has very little at stake.

A win would only mean an additional ATP point to his present collection of 34 ATP points for Prakash whereas it will be worth a jump from five ATP points to nine for Sunil. The question is whether the former Asian junior champion still has the hunger to fight for those points.

In the bottom half, the sixth-seeded Febi Widhiyanto of Indonesia dismissed Hiu Tung Yu of Hong Kong 6-3, 6-0 in another quarterfinal.

Widhiyanto has taken his collection to 33 circuit points and will play Malaysian Yew-Ming Si who served and volley well to overcome Eliran Dooyev of Israel in a second set tie-break. One of the last few entrants into the Masters event, Si has done well to make the semifinals and has a fair chance against the Indonesian.

The Ratiwatanas are a good doubles combination, but it was indeed a surprise that the top-seeded Amritraj cousins went down to them in straight sets. It was Prakash whose serve was broken decisively in the ninth game of the first set, and the Ratiwatanas hung on gamely in converting their fourth matchpoint in a hard fought tie-break in the second set.

However, they could not enact the magic any more in the evening, against the champions of the third leg, Vijay Kannan and Saurav Panja who prevailed over the Thais in a second set tie-break in the semifinals.

The victory also ensured that Vijay and Saurav, who had revived their fortunes on resumption in their unfinished quarterfinal match in the morning, by beating Rohan Gajjar and Saurabh Kohli in three sets, won the Satellite with an unbeatable tally to 65 circuit points.

In the other semifinal, the Asian Games bronze medallists, Mustafa Ghouse and Vishaal Uppal played well to down the Indonesian pair of Febi Widhiyanto and Hendri-Susilo Pramono in straight sets. The pair can hope to take their tally to a maximum of 63 circuit points even if they win the final. They are at least assured of three bonus ATP points for finishing second in the circuit.

With 51 circuit points, Prakash and Stephen collected 28 ATP points for their effort in the circuit. The results: Singles (quarterfinals): Prakash Amritraj w/o Vinod Sridhar; Sunil Kumar bt Hayato Furukawa (Jpn) 6-2, 6-3; Yew-Ming Si (Mas) bt Eliran Dooyev (Isr) 6-4, 7-6(7-3); Febi Widhiyanto (Ina) bt Hiu Tung Yu (Hkg) 6-3, 6-0.

Doubles (semifinals): Vijay Kannan and Saurav Panja bt Sonchat Ratiwatana and Sanchai Ratiwatana (Tha) 6-3, 7-6 (7-2); Mustafa Ghouse and Vishaal Uppal bt Febi Widhiyanto and Hendri-Susilo Pramono (Ina) 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.Quarterfinals: Sonchat Ratiwatana and Sanchai Ratiwatana bt Stephen Amritraj (US) and Prakash Amritraj 6-4, 7-6 (12-10); Vijay Kannan and Saurav Panja bt Rohan Gajjar and Saurabh Kohli 2-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2.

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