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Yuki gifts himself a nice birthday present

Special Correspondent

Injured Rohan Gajjar unable to provide a meaningful challenge

— Photo: S. Subramanium

MOTIVATING WORDS: The Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs, M.S. Gill interacting with Yuki Bhambri and Rohan Gajjar on Saturday.

NEW DELHI: Yuki Bhambri made it a hat-trick of titles at home as he beat Rohan Gajjar 6-2, 7-6(6) in the final of the Central Bank $15,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament here on Saturday.

Watched by the Union Sports Minister, M.S. Gill, for whom the start of the contest had to be delayed by 15 minutes, Yuki played much better than his opponent, though he was nowhere close to his best, to record his third successive straight-set victory against the tall Mumbaikar.

The fact that it was his 17th birthday, made the whole experience sweeter for Yuki, who collected 25 ATP points for the title.

After the gripping contest in the semifinals between Yuki and Vishnu Vardhan, it was an anti-climax as Gajjar with a pulled groin muscle was unable to provide a meaningful challenge.

Yet, for someone who held serve only once in the first set, Gajjar put together a decent resistance in the second set.

The contest became lively when Gajjar broke back Yuki in the sixth game of the second set after having dropped serve in the third game. To be fair, there was no question of pulling the alarm bells, as Yuki was far too consistent with his game to let the match drift any further.

In the eventual tie-break, Gajjar saved a match point on his serve with a sharp backhand volley, but put a forehand tamely into the net on the second match point. “It is great to win another title, especially on my birthday. I enjoy playing at home. There was some lapse on my part in this match, but there is no doubt that I am getting better with every match.

“I hope to win a title, perhaps at the Challenger level when I celebrate my next birthday,” said Yuki, quite happy to have pulled off an impressive performance through the week in hot and humid conditions.Appreciating the initiative taken by the Dr. Gill to come for the match and watch it full for more than an hour, Yuki said that such a gesture would definitely help the sport.

Gill’s encouragement

Applauding the players for their effort, the Sports Minister observed that he was sure that some of the players from the current bunch would soon play singles for India in Davis Cup etc.

“Somdev Devvarman has come up well. We will get more singles players from this group. Doubles is fine, and mixed doubles is fun”, said the minister, as he tried to put things in perspective.

Goading the players to stick to their hard training regimen for improvement, Dr. Gill said that it was tapasya that would help them metamorphose into players of the calibre of Andy Murray one day.

The General Manager of Central Bank of India, B.N.S. Ratnakar, gave away the prizes.

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