The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Sriram Balaji to meet Ranjeet in final

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 06, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Sriram Balaji to meet Ranjeet in final

Special Correspondent

— Photo: V.V. Krishnan

IN GOOD FORM: Sriram Balaji beat Aditya Madkekar to enter the final of the DSCL National tennis championship in New Delhi on Friday.

NEW DELHI: Sriram Balaji survived a match-point in recording a 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-1 victory over Aditya Madkekar in the semifinals of the DSCL National men’s tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Friday.

It was a classic case of having faith in one’s game and sticking to the task that bit longer as Sriram overcame a critical phase when Madkekar failed to drive the last nail home while serving for the match with a match-point on hand in the 10th game of the second set.

Once he converted the fifth breakpoint in that nerve-wracking 10th game, Sriram played with renewed vigour, even as Madkekar resigned himself to his fate, unable to goad his body any further.

The effort should give Sriram tremendous confidence for the final against the favourite, the top-seeded V.M. Ranjeet, who cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 triumph with an impressive all-round game over the seventh-seeded Kamala Kannan.

It was Madkekar who called the shots for the better part of the match as he broke Sriram in the ninth game of the first set to pocket it nonchalantly after having saved a breakpoint in the eighth.

In the second also, Madkekar was on course, breaking Balaji in the fifth game. He did have to save two breakpoints in the eighth game, and that was a possible indication of the turn of events to unfold a little later.

In the 10th game, Madkekar opened with a double fault and soon faced three breakpoints at 0-40. He faced one more before coming up with a big serve to set up a match-point. When he could have sealed the contest with one good shot, Madkekar erred and dropped the serve.

Vikram-Abhijeet triumph

In the doubles final, the unfancied B. Vikram Reddy and Abhijeet Tiwari had the last laugh as the Andhra-Chandigarh combination beat the third-seeded Mithun Murali and Vinod Sridhar in the super tie-break, after having twisted the match around in the second tie-break.

The results: Singles (semifinals): V. M. Ranjeet bt Kamala Kannan 6-1, 6-1; Sriram Balaji bt Aditya Madkekar 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-1.

Doubles (final): B. Vikram Reddy & Abhijeet Tiwari bt Mithun Murali & Vinod Sridhar 6-4, 6-7(2), 10-4.

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

Sport