The minute Rutuja Bhosale completes her match, the first person she talks to over phone is her coach Sandeep Kirtane.
Like a good student, Bhosale has been able to implement her coach's ‘worksheet' to a nicety in the Asian closed junior tennis championship.
The 15-year-old hardly put a foot wrong in her 6-4, 6-1 win over Apichaya Runglerdkriangkrai of Thailand in the semifinals here on Friday. She will take on Ratnika Batra, the sixth seed, in the final.
Batra had to slug it out from the baseline to eke out a 7-6(2), 6-3 win over Hong Kong's I.P. Katherine.
Bhosale has been following religiously Kirtane's worksheet of making a list of her three best shots and making it work on the ground. Apichaya, however, was no pushover. Though stocky, she moves pretty well and is capable of hitting quite hard. But Rutuja moved faster and her serves didn't desert her.
“What I did was simple. I made her move from side to side, and she being a stocky girl found it difficult to handle.
“Her returns were poor. I was moving really well,” said Bhosale.
Gao survives
In the boys' section, Gao Xin, the top seed, defeated Sahil Deshmukh 7-5, 6-0 to set up a final clash with Arjun Kadhe, the second seed.
Kadhe put it across Yuki Muramatsu of Japan 7-6(5), 6-0. Sahil tested the 17-year-old Gao from the baseline and outwitted the latter numerous times.
The 14-year-old's approach shots were of a high standard and it was pleasing to see Sahil match the Chinese from the backcourt.
Sahil couldn't maintain the intensity in the second set and gave up quickly.
It wasn't easy for Kadhe either. The 17-year-old counter-puncher from Japan rallied from 1-4 down to take the match to a tie-breaker, where Kadhe's serves came to the rescue.
On the summit clash, Kadhe said “we have played each other twice before and we have a 1-1 record. How we serve will be crucial.”
The results (Indians unless otherwise mentioned):
Singles: Semifinals:
Boys: Gao Xin (Chn) bt Sahil Deshmukh 7-5, 6-0; Arjun Kadhe bt Yuki Muramatsu (Jpn) 7-6(5), 6-0.
Girls: Rutuja Bhosale bt Apichaya Runglerdkriangkrai (Tha) 6-4, 6-1; Ratnika Batra bt I.P. Katherine (HKG) 7-6 (2), 6-3.
Doubles: Boys: Semifinals: Gao Xin & Yuki Muramatsu (Jpn) bt Arjun Kadhe & Rakshay Thakkar 7-6(7), 6-1; Kelvin Lam (HKG) & Siyu Liu (Chn) bt Nattan Benjasupawan & Teeradon Tortrakul (Tha) 7-5, 6-2.
Girls: Final: Ayaka Okuno (Jpn) & Aldila Sutjiadi (Ina) bt Aishwarya Agarwal & Rutuja Bhosale 6-2, 6-3.
Semifinals: Okuno & Sutjiadi w/o Kamonwan Buayam & Apichaya Runglerdkriangkrai (Tha); Agarwal & Bhosale w/o Ching-Wen Hsu (Tpe) & Sanae Ohta (Jpn).
