The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Roy battles past Oostdam

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 16, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Roy battles past Oostdam

Special Correspondent

Bellary: Rupesh Roy, playing as a wild card, battled a stomach cramp and a determined Dutch qualifier, Roel Oostdam, to book his slot in the last 16 round of the $15,000 Bellary Open ITF men’s Futures championship at the Bellary Police Gymkhana courts here on Monday.

Roy’s 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 victory, coming after a marathon three-setter that lasted two hours, set the tone for a slew of contests spread over the next four days under hot and dry conditions, which is bound to test the stamina and tenacity of the players.

The match not only saw some patches of some good flashy tennis but also witnessed a spate of unforced errors and double faults from the players.

Roy began on a bright note in the first set, breaking Oostdam in the fourth game and led 4-1 before he squandered the advantage by dropping his serve in the seventh game with two double faults. A visibly upset Roy slammed the racquet down and was warned for code violation.

A chastened Roy waited for his chance that came in the 12th game when Oostdam double faulted at 40-30 and ended up with a deuce. The Dutch player slammed a double-handed backhand wide and later netted a forehand to drop the serve and set at 5-7.

Roy found himself at the receiving end in the second set, struggling all the way with a first serve, and a flurry of double faults also landed him in deep trouble, as he slumped to 1-5. Though he managed a break in the eighth game, it was too late as Oostdam closed out the set.

Seizing the initiative

Roy seized the initiative in the decider with a break in the first game and battled hard to keep his serve in the fourth game, after five deuces. Oostdam, though down, was not completely out as he tied the set score at 3-all by cracking Roy in the sixth game.

Roy showed his resilience with a fighting display in the seventh game and after five deuces broke his rival for a 4-3 lead. From then on, he held the whip-hand as he cracked Oostdam again in the ninth game to take the set and match.

The other three singles ties were absorbing in patches as Vivek Shokeen beat a rusty wild card Arjun Goutham 6-3, 6-3, Vijayant Malik packed off Vignesh Chandrashekar 6-0, 7-5 and qualifier Purav Raja stopped the wild card Rahil Makharia 7-5, 6-1.

The results (all Indians unless specified): Men’s singles: First round: Rupesh Roy bt Roel Oostdam (Ned) 7-5, 3-6, 6-3; Vijayant Malik bt Vignesh Chandrashekar 6-0, 7-5; Purav Raja bt Rahil Makharia 7-5, 6-1; Vivek Shokeen bt Arjun Goutham 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles: First round: Rainer Etzinger & Phillip Oswald (Aut) bt Robert Belak & D. Madjarovski (Srb) 6-1, 6-4; Craciun & Gavrila (Rou) bt Rohan Gide & Kaushik Raju 3-6, 6-1, 10-5 (super tie-break); Vivek Shokeen & Ashutosh Singh bt Aditya Madkekar & Arjun Goutham 6-4, 6-4; Ivan Cerovic (Cro) & Valtzer (Isr) bt Anikanov (Ukr) & Ajai Selvaraj 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 11-9 (super tie-break).

Cervanak & Semjan (Svk) bt Vijayant Malik & Shivang Mishra 6-2, 6-3; Kedryuk (Kaz) & Vijay Kannan bt Vignesh Chandrashekar & Ashwin Vijayaragavan 6-4, 6-2; Rohan Gajjar & Rupesh Roy bt Tushar Liberhan & Navdeep Singh 7-5, 6-2; Vijay Sundar Prashanth & Ranjeet Murugesan bt Purav Raja & Sunil Kumar Sipaeya 1-6, 6-4, 11-9 (super tie-break).

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail