The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Janaki pulls off the day’s only upset

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Wednesday, Dec 19, 2007
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Janaki pulls off the day’s only upset

Amitabha Das Sharma

The qualifier from Hyderabad surprises the 28th-ranked Vishaka Sheoran

Ragini, Shalini won their matches easily
In the men’s section, results justified the rankings

— Photo: Sushanta Patronobish

GRITTY SHOW: G. Janaki showed character to win from a set and a break down against a higher-ranked opponent.

KOLKATA: Qualifier Gunuganti Janaki created a flutter, offsetting the general dominance of the fancied names in the Indian Oil Servo National grass court tennis here at the South Club on Tuesday, rallying to beat the 28th ranked Vishaka Sheoran.

As the remainder of the first round fixtures rolled over to the second day, it continued to see the supremacy of the seeded and higher ranked players.

In the most exciting encounter of the day, Janaki surprised everyone salvaging the match after Delhi’s Vishaka was just one game away, on serve.

Janaki lost the first set 2-6 as Vishaka, who served powerfully banging in four aces, proved too strong in the initial bargain. Janaki, ranked 71st, clawed her way back in the second set, neutralising the breaks each time Vishaka seemed to nudge ahead.

Earning a break in the 11th game, the Delhi player appeared to have wrapped up the match. But Janaki forced the tiebreaker, breaking her opponent back in the 12th game. Trailing again (4-6) in the tiebreaker, the girl from Hyderabad pulled around in the crucial moment to make it 7-7 and went on to win the tiebreaker 9-7.

It proved a battle of attrition thereafter as Janaki, strengthened by the remarkable turnaround, outdid a psychologically drained Vishaka 6-2 in the decider.

In two other women’s first round matches, local player and sixth seeded Ragini Vimal, and eighth seeded Shalini Sahoo (Delhi) won their respective matches easily.

Sticking to the script

In the men’s section, the results justified the rankings.

Second seeded Ashutosh Singh, and fifth seeded Vivek Shokeen found the going easy against their respective opponents — qualifier Kaushik Das (Assam) and Vijay Sunder Prasanth (Tamil Nadu).

The next round of the men’s encounter becomes exciting, with Shokeen slated to take on Davis Cupper Harsh Mankad, who completed his overnight unfinished match without dropping a game.

Third seeded Aditya Madkekar, former champion Syed Fazaluddin and V.M. Ranjeet won their matches in straight sets. Rohan Gajjar of Maharashtra, who faces top seeded Karan Rastogi in the next round, was stretched to the decider by qualifier A.S. Suresh Krishna of Andhra Pradesh.

The results (prefix denote seeding): Men’s Singles (first round): Rohan Gajar (Mah) bt A.S. Suresh Krishna (AP) 6-3, 3-6,6-1; Harsh Mankad (Mah) bt Divyanshu Singh (Dli) 6-4, 6-2; 5-Vivek Shokeen (Dli) bt Vijay Sundar Prashanth (TN) 7-5, 6-2; Kamala Kannan (TN) bt Yannick Nelord (Dli) 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(4); Sriram Balaji (TN) bt Vinod Sewa (Ben) 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.

V.M. Ranjeet (TN) bt Anshuman Dutta (Asm) 6-1, 6-3; Syed Fazaluddin (Ben) bt Ajai Selvaraj (TN) 7-6(3), 6-1; 3-Aditya Madkekar (Kar) bt Dhruv Kumar (Ben) 6-2, 6-3; Rahil Makharia (AP) bt Abhijeet Tiwari (Chg) 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-4; Arjun Goutham (Kar) bt P.C. Vignesh (AP) 6-3, 6-2; 2-Ashutosh Singh (Dli) bt Kaushik Das (Asm) 6-1, 6-1.

Ladies’ Singles (first round): Gunuganti Janaki (AP) bt Vishaka Sheoran (Dli) 2-6, 7-6(7), 6-2; 6-Ragini Vimal (Ben) bt Richa Valechha (Ben) 6-2, 6-0; 8-Shalini Sahoo (Dli)bt Archana Venkatraman (Kar) 6-2, 6-4.

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