The focus was on the men, but Riya Bhatia stole the thunder, the hard way, as she wrestled the women’s title with 7-5, 6-7(0), 6-3 victory over Nidhi Chilumula in the State Bank of Patiala National grass court tennis championship at the Chandigarh Club on Saturday.
It was a welcome addition to her trophy collection for the 19-year-old Riya had won the National hard court title in Delhi, apart from an ITF women’s title in Egypt, in a rewarding season.
“Chandigarh is so close to Delhi, and I thought that I should go for this title also, as it is prestigious. I had beaten Nidhi in the quarterfinals of Fenesta Nationals but I am more happy today as I could beat her on her day when she played so well”, said Riya, after a three-hour battle.
Nidhi played very well, and was quite athletic, with a deft touch to boot, but lacked the conviction in her ability to take the fight to her opponent who dictated the rallies with her fierce strokes.
There was no such fight for the men’s title as V.M. Ranjeet continued to play close to his best and exasperated Vijay Kannan, a fellow employee with the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in Chennai, with a crisp performance for a 6-1, 6-4 victory in just under an hour.
“I haven’t played Vijay for many years. I know how good he is, so had to play my best game”, said the 31-year-old Ranjeet, who had won the national hard court title in 2008. He had also beaten Vijay in straight sets in the ITF men’s circuit.
There may not have been much money in the event, as the men’s and women’s champions were presented Rs.39,000 and Rs.29,000 respectively, a far cry to the equal prize money of Rs. 300,000 each for the national hard court men’s and women’s champions, but the players felt great pride in asserting their game on the unpredictable surface.
It was hard for the 36-year-old Vijay Kannan, who had tamed Rohan Bopanna, for his national title when he was half his current age, against a player who was regular on the professional circuit.
Ranjeet had his grass court shoes, a rarity among the players here, and moved his opponent around with precision strokes. He dithered momentarily when he dropped serve in the sixth game of the second set, but it was a minor aberration to a smooth flow. It was crisp execution.
Riya had the confidence to hit her strokes and serve hard. She also had the determination to fight her way out, especially after being blanked in the tie-break of the second set. She kept talking to herself and was quite hard at it.
The 22-year-old Nidhi could have conserved some energy had she been able to press home the advantage when she led 4-1 in the second set, up by two breaks, but was happy to force the decider.
After an initial exchange of breaks in the first two games in the third set, Riya broke Nidhi’s serve in the seventh and ninth games to close out the match.
As the national champion on two surfaces in the same year, Riya felt that she was getting closer to Fed Cup selection, but said that she would focus on improving her world rank with better performances in the international circuit. She was planning to make it to Africa to get some points, after having toyed with the idea of competing in the three tournaments to be staged in Maharashtra over the next three weeks.
The runners-up in the men’s and women’s sections were presented Rs. 29,000 and Rs.18,000 respectively, as the championship carried an overall prize purse of five lakh rupees.
The results (finals): Men: V.M. Ranjeet bt Vijay Kannan 6-1, 6-4.
Women: Riya Bhatia bt Nidhi Chilumula 7-5, 6-7(0), 6-3.
