The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Prakash prevails over Sunil Kumar

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Friday, Jun 01, 2007
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Prakash prevails over Sunil Kumar

Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH: Prakash Amritraj wriggled out of the clutches of defeat against Sunil Kumar 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the SAIL $10,000 ITF men's Futures tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex here on Thursday.

In a match that deserved to be on the centre-court but was played on the outside courts as the local left-hander had opted for it, Prakash served big and stroked with intensity, not allowing his shoulders to droop when the flow was against him.

In contrast, Sunil froze in the middle when he could have pulled through in straight sets with a little more of self-belief. He had delighted the sparse gathering with a purposeful game, but when it was time to press the accelerator and drive to the finish line, he just panicked.

Yet, it had to be conceded that it was Prakash's fault that he allowed the match to get out of hand after having taken a 5-2 lead in the first set, when he had adjusted himself nicely to the slow-speed of the court.

Prakash's undoing was his attempt to improve the percentage of his first serves despite having a nice kicking second serve that Sunil struggled to hit back into the court most of the time. Thus, after voluntarily taking the sting out of his first serves, Prakash started struggling to hold serve and did not do so till the sixth game of the second set.

Thereafter, Prakash tightened up his game and did not face a breakpoint till when he was serving for the match in the eighth game the decider.

Sunil had the best chance when he was up 5-4 after he had saved six breakpoints from 0-40 in the ninth game of the second set but he got broken rather tamely in the 11th game that signalled the beginning of the end of his campaign.

Prakash will meet Punna Vishal who showed remarkable fighting spirit once again to bounce back from being 2-5 down in the decider to tame Aditya Madkekar.

The top-seeded Karan Rastogi had to endure tough moments against the national hardcourt champion Purav Raja after an indifferent start, and stayed positive to pull through in a climactic third set.

He will face the wily former national champion, Vijay Kannan who stopped another local lad Tushar Liberhan in another three-setter.

Tushar, however, had the consolation of making the doubles final in partnership with Navdeep Singh, as the duo put out the second-seeded Purav and Sandeep Kirtane in straight sets.

The results:

Singles (quarterfinals): Karan Rastogi bt Purav Raja 2-6, 6-2, 6-4; Vijay Kannan bt Tushar Liberhan 6-2, 3-6, 6-2; Prakash Amritraj bt Sunil Kumar 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-2; Punna Vishal bt Aditya Madkekar 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Doubles (semifinals): Stephen Amritraj and Sunil Kumar bt Vivek Shokeen and Sanam Singh 6-4, 6-1; Tushar Liberhan and Navdeep Singh bt Sandeep Kirtane and Purav Raja 6-3, 6-3.

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