Friday, Apr 18, 2003
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Tennis
By Kamesh Srinivasan
Heli Bargil of Israel exults after her victory over the second-seeded Sai Jayalakshmy in the quarterfinals of the ITF women's tennis tournament in Muzaffar Nagar on Thursday. — Photo: Sandeep Saxena
Serving strongly and stroking with assurance on either flank, Bargil, close to a state of collapse because of exhaustion the previous day, showed she was no spring chicken as she scotched the aspirations of the hosts to have three Indians in the semifinals. Top-seeded Rushmi Chakravarti proved too good for the eighth-seeded Diana Costa of Portugal as she cantered home 6-0, 6-3 while Archana Venkataraman contemptuously unmasked the pretensions of qualifier Katie Miles of Britain to challenge her on grass, with a 6-2, 6-2 margin. Even as one appreciated the energetic play of the 984th ranked Bargil, who was concentration personified through the contest that spanned an hour and a half, it was intriguing to see how the 492nd ranked Sai was able to allow her game to dip so much within a span of 24 hours. While the strongly-built Bargil started smoothly, holding serve in the first game without any fuss, Sai won a mere three points in all in her three service games in the first set. The IOC officer from Chennai doublefaulted to drop serves in the second and sixth games, a clear indication of her unsure play. In contrast, Bargil stroked confidently, and did not face a breakpoint in the whole of first set. Sai did have her chances to make a fight of it as she started getting into her rhythm in the second set, but she could not make things happen in her favour. In the second set, Sai broke Bargil in the third game to wrest the initiative, but dropped serve, again with a doublefault in the sixth game to nullify her advantage. Sai hung in out there, saving two breakpoints in the eighth game, but missed two breakpoints in the ninth game. Sai pushed the contest into the tie-break, but lacked the wherewithal this day to make a match of it. At 4-5, Bargil spanked a winner to be on par. Sai delivered a service winner for a setpoint, but the Israeli smashed two successive winners to tilt the balance in her favour. The Israeli was too hot to handle any more for Sai, and she came up with her another doublefault to end her agony. Bargil was understandably thrilled as she had failed to qualify for the second tournament in Mumbai last week, after having fallen in the second round of the first tournament.The cherubic Israeli punched the air with both fists in celebration, and was quick on her mobile phone to message her triumph to the near and dear ones back home. Bargil will, however, have the onerous task of matching wits with the gutsy Archana Venkataraman in the semifinals. The Bangalore girl returned very well in overwhelming Katie Miles, whose confidence was broken very early in the match with the accurate play of Archana. The top-seeded Rushmi Chakravarti slackened a bit in the second set, when she allowed herself to be broken twice, but she was playing too good overall to let the alarm bells ring at any stage. Even as Diana grappled with her indifferent form, Rushmi raced away with the first set in 20 minutes. She tightened the noose after exchange of breaks in the first five games of the second set. Diana was not game for any more fight and dropped serve in the ninth game. Too many doublefaults including two in the last game proved the nemesis for Diana, more than Rushmi's searing groundstrokes. Rushmi will be challenged by the 18-year-old Julia Vorobieva of Russia. "We will see,'' said the Russian, who beat Yael Glitzenshtein of Israel 7-5, 6-3 in just over an hour, about the impending semifinal with the top seed. Tall and athletic, a recent addition to the professional tour, Julia had made it to the semifinals of a similar tournament in Bangalore in February, when she beat Sonal Phadke, Geeta Manohar and Sai Jayalakshmy before falling in three sets to Megha Vakharia. Having beaten the third-seeded Wilawan Choptang of Thailand in a marathon match in the pre-quarterfinals, Julia is confident about her ability to play well on grass. She serves effectively and mixes her strokes efficiently, but challenging Rushmi will not be an easy task, with such limited armoury. For the 434th ranked Rushmi, it will be her reputation on the line, while the 787th ranked Russian will have everything to gain.
Sai-Rushmi duo scrapes through
In the doubles semifinals, the top seed Sai Jayalakshmy and Rushmi Chakravarti had to use all their experience in saving three matchpoints at 3-6 in the third set tie-break to eventually scrape through 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (9-7) against fourth-seeded Diana Costa and Liza Pereira. The results: Singles (quarterfinals): Rushmi Chakravarti bt Diana Costa (Por) 6-0, 6-3; Julia Vorobieva (Rus) bt Yael Glitzenshtein (Isr) 7-5, 6-3; Archana Venkataraman bt Katie Miles (GBR) 6-2, 6-2; Heli Bargil (Isr) bt Sai Jayalakshmy 6-0, 7-6 (8-6). Doubles (semifinals): Sai Jayalakshmy/Rushmi Chakravarti bt Diana Costa (Por)/Liza Pereira 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (9-7); Yael Glitzenshtein (Isr)/Shruti Dhawan bt Carly Homewood/Natalie Neri (GBR) 6-0, 6-3.
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