The Hindu : Somdev quells Vinod's challenge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Somdev quells Vinod's challenge

By Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI APRIL 29. Qualifier Somdev Dev Varman played a mature game by getting past a gritty Vinod Sridhar 6-4, 7-5 in the first leg of the satellite circuit tennis tournament, which began at the DLTA Complex here on Monday.

The 17-year-old Somdev, a product of the BAT Centre in Chennai, reeled off five games in a row from 2-5 in the second set to clinch the match.

Serving well and stroking with confidence, the gangling Somdev teased his left-handed opponent with his compact game, even as he covered the court with considerable athleticism.

Vinod is a tough customer, but was not at his fighting best today in the match that lasted an hour and 30 minutes. Even in the first set, he could not capitalise on the situation when he held at 4-3 by saving four breakpoints in a long-drawn game. Vinod failed to win another game in that set.

Somdev had lost twice before in as many meetings to Vinod, but there is a certain confident streak in him following his good results in the ITF junior tournaments, that should augur well for his future.

He, however, will have the unenviable task of meeting the winner of the match between the third-seeded Nitin Kirtane and fellow qualifier Elad Sertn of Israel in the second round.

Another Indian youngster who did well in the first round, and may have a tough second round, was Shivang Mishra. The Delhi boy blanked the former National junior champion, Vijayendra Laad, in 50 minutes, serving 14 aces in his six service games.

In fact, the wiry Shivang finished the match with a second-serve ace, and it was his fifth in that game.

Shivang will meet the winner of the match between, the fourth-seeded Eliran Dooyev of Israel and qualifier Rohan Gajjar.

Shivang's brother, Nishank Mishra went down fighting in three sets against Ciaran Moore of South Africa in a battle that lasted two hours and 11 minutes.

If he applies himself a little more to the task, Nishank should be able to work his way past such opponents, and he would definitely learnt a lot from this defeat.

In another match, Kamala Kannan was unable to get his rhythm against Rafael Moreno-Negri of Spain.

In doubles, R. Arun Prakash and Vinod Sridhar tested the second-seeded Serguei Demekhine and Ivan Syrov of Russia, before losing their way in the second-set tie-break.

The results: Singles (first round): Shivang Mishra bt Vijayendra Laad 6-0, 6-0; Rafael Moreno-Negri (Esp) bt Kamala Kannan 6-3, 6-2; Ciaran Moore (RSA) bt Nishank Mishra 5-7, 6-3, 6-3; Somdev Dev Varman bt Vinod Sridhar 6-4, 7-5.

Doubles (first round): Sandeep Kirtane/Rohan Gajjar bt Somdev Dev Varman/Palivela Ravikrishna 6-4, 6-4; Roy Sichel/Elad Stern (Isr) bt Kamala Kannan/Rishi Sridhar 7-5, 6-1; Giunior Ghedina/Sebastian Niedermayer (Ger) bt Manoj Mahadevan/Amod Wakalkar 7-5, 6-3; Nitin Kirtane/Vishaal Uppal bt Ashutosh Singh/Gurmehar Singh 6-1, 6-4; Naoki Arimoto/Hayato Furukawa (Jpn) bt Vijayendra Laad/Kedar Tembe 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; Serguei Demekhine/Ivan Syrov (Rus) bt R. Arun Prakash/Vinod Sridhar 4-6, 7-6 (7-0), 6-4.

Qualifying event (final round): Naoki Arimoto/Hayato Furukawa (Jpn) bt Ajay Chowdapalli/Mohammed Yasser Arafat 6-3, 6-3; First round: Ajay Chowdapalli/Mohammed Yasser Arafat bt M. Jaikar/Mohammed Riyaz 6-0, 6-2; Naoki Arimoto/Hayato Furukawa bt Punna Vishal/Anjan Viplav 7-6 (9-7), 6-3.

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