The Hindu : Bopanna keeps his cool, enters final

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 18, 2003

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Bopanna keeps his cool, enters final

By Kamesh Srinivasan

India's Vishaal Uppal (right) stretches for a return, even as Mustafa Ghouse readies himself to play the shot in case of the former failing to connect, in the doubles final against team-mates Harsh Mankad and Ajay Ramaswamy at the ITF Futures tennis tournament in New Delhi on Friday. — Photo: S. Subramanium

NEW DELHI JAN. 17. His form deserted him midway, but Rohan Bopanna kept his cool in overcoming a fighting Harsh Mankad 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3) in the semifinals of the $10,000 ITF Futures tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Friday.

Serving big and stroking with confidence, the 387th-ranked fifth seed, Bopanna, was calling the shots at 6-4, 4-2, but the sight of victory seemed to have an unnerving effect on him. Even as Harsh tightened his game, and started hitting the ball on the rise, Bopanna became erratic.

To compound his problems, Bopanna lost the sting in his serves and the first serves deserted him. It was thus no surprise that the tide turned in favour of the 560th-ranked Harsh.

It was Harsh who first held matchpoint in the 10th game of the decider, following a couple of doublefaults by Bopanna. But, Bopanna came up with a deep volley to force an error from Harsh, and wriggled out of the clutches of defeat.

Bopanna played much better in the climax, as he smacked winners to force the tie-break. Suddenly, the fist serves were back in place, and Bopanna raced to a 5-2 lead in the tie-break, even as Harsh made uncharacteristic errors.

Bopanna had three matchpoints when Harsh put a forehand long, and the Mumbai lad, who has gained considerable experience by playing a string of matches in recent Davis Cup ties, brought the curtains down by netting a return.

In the eventual analysis, it was Bopanna's serve that did the trick for him, as he served seven aces in the decider, two of them on second serve, as compared to eight in the first two sets. Bopanna had five service winners as well in the third set, after having had only two in the first two sets. He also restricted the doublefaults in the third set to two, as compared to seven in the first two sets.

The Coorgi lad from Bangalore played a more positive game in the decider and struck nine winners as compared to 10 in the first two sets. Bopanna came to the net only on rare occasions in the whole match and thus he had only two volley winners. Harsh was also equally happy to hit from the back court which meant that Bopanna had the luxury of hitting only four passing shots in the whole match.

Harsh was more concerned about keeping the ball in play and keeping the errors to the minimum, much in contrast to his opponent who was going for broke more often than not, which saw him face numerous breakpoints in the second half of the match.

Harsh had 21 winners including four volleys. He only had three aces and five doublefaults in the match that spanned two hours and 24 minutes.

``I am happy with the way I played in the end, after becoming a bit tight in the second set when I was cruising,'' said Bopanna, who will meet second-seeded Dmitri Vlasov of Russia. The Russian beat compatriot, qualifier Vadim Davletshin in three sets.

It was perplexing to watch Bopanna getting broken at love in the eighth game and dropping serve again in the 10th in the second set, after he had hardly faced a breakpoint till then. But then, the signs of nerves were visible in the 10th game of the first set, when he saved two breakpoints to hold serve.

In the end, Bopanna did commendably well to save a string of breakpoints in the decider to the take the contest into the tie-break.

``He played the tie-break very well,'' said Harsh, who had beaten Bopanna in a similar tournament in Chandigarh the last time. Of course, Bopanna has a 2-1 head-to-head record against Harsh, having beaten him in the final of the Futures event in Chennai.

For the sparse gathering, which included the chairman of selectors Shyam Minotra, apart from Sumant Mishra, Balram Singh and the life-president of the AITA, R. K. Khanna, it was a veritable final this day.

In the doubles final, the Asian Games bronze medallists Vishaal Uppal and Mustafa Ghouse defeated Harsh Mankad and Ajay Ramaswamy 6-3, 6-4.

The results:

Singles (semifinals): Rohan Bopanna bt Harsh Mankad 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3); Dmitri Vlasov (Rus) bt Vadim Davletshin (Rus) 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles (final): Vishaal Uppal & Mustafa Ghouse bt Harsh Mankad & Ajay Ramaswamy 6-3, 6-4.

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