The Hindu : Sunil goes down to Simpatiaji

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 19, 2003

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Sunil goes down to Simpatiaji

By Kamesh Srinivasan

Photo: V.V. Krishnan

Vinod Sridhar whips a forehand return en route to beating Dong Hi Choi of Korea in the ITF men's Satellite circuit in New Delhi on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI JUNE 18. He is not the Sunil Kumar we have known. The spark is still there and so are the strokes, but the Chandigarh lad is not able to stoke the fire that easily these days.

Maybe, it has to do with a troubling shoulder, lesser motivation or more confusion in the mind. The desire to win is not that strong.

Whatever it may be, Sunil Kumar failed to capitalise on two matchpoints and went down 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (2-7) to the fourth-seeded Prima Simpatiaji of Indonesia in the pre-quarterfinals of the GAIL Satellite tennis circuit third leg at the DLTA Complex here on Wednesday.

On a pleasant evening, when a heavy spell of rain earlier in the day had given way to bright sunshine, there was humidity in the air that sapped the energy of the players.

Both Simpatiaji and Sunil Kumar had the athleticism, but they tended to wilt as the match crossed the two-hour mark.

Eventually, when he had the court under his disposal, and the opponent at his mercy, Sunil Kumar opted to play safe as he attempted a drop volley at 5-3, 40-15 in the decider.

Gathering the last ounce of energy, Simpatiaji ran hard, reached the drop and struck a smooth backhand cross court winner to baffle the Indian lad and his supporters in the stands.

Sunil dropped serve in that game and was so demoralised that he could not do a thing right in the eventual tie-break. He had played a good match except in the fourth game of the second set when he got broken, and again in that ninth game when he had the match in his pocket.

But that is the way it goes in professional tennis. You have got to take your chances, for you may not get one again. Sunil will have ample time to rest his shoulder and wait for his chances in the Masters now.

Simpatiaji had done well to make the final of the first leg, and has been a threat with his all-round game that is backed by supreme fitness.

He will meet qualifier Brian Hung of Hong Kong who beat compatriot and fellow qualifier Hiu Tung Yu in straight sets.

There were three Indians who made it to the quarterfinals. The top-seeded Prakash Amritraj was calling the shots in a serve and volley duel against Vishaal Uppal, before the latter cried halt, following a niggling shoulder injury, and retired after one game in the second set.

Prakash will take on Vinod Sridhar, who was quite eloquent in expressing his determination, in his 6-1, 6-4 triumph over Dong Hee Choi of Korea. Even in the morning when the match started in squally conditions and dust was getting into everyone's eyes, Vinod was quite charged up and played with intensity.

Later, when the rain had washed the atmosphere clean and play resumed around noon, Vinod, an employee of GAIL continued in the same fashion to deny any escape route for the Korean, who could not hide his limitations.

Vinod had given a good account of himself while losing in a second set tie-break to Prakash in the first leg in Mumbai. In fact, Vinod has been quite consistent in making it to the quarterfinals of all the three legs so far. He will be keen to progress further, and it should be an interesting contest.

The finalist of the second leg, Vijay Kannan was in a spot of bother against qualifier Katsushi Fukuda of Japan, but recovered his confident touch to win in straight sets.

Annoyed with his defeat, the Japanese kicked his kit-bag hard a few times after the match, before walking away to cheer his teammate fighting on another court.

The third-seeded Vijay will be up against Takeshi Itoh of Japan, who weathered a three setter in beating Rohan Gajjar. Gajjar played hard in recovering from a matchpoint in the tenth game of the second set to eventually win the set in the tie-break.

However, the athletic Japanese proved too good in the decider, as Gajjar's form dipped and he made a flurry of errors.

The second-seeded Daniel Kiernan of Britain played another three setter to make the quarterfinals where he will be challenged by the seventh-seeded Febi Widhiyanto of Indonesia. Widhiyanto handled the crafty game of qualifier Kedar Tembe to win in straight sets.

The results: Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Prakash Amritraj bt Vishaal Uppal 6-2, 1-0 (retired); Vinod Sridhar bt Dong Hee Choi (Kor) 6-1, 6-4; Vijay Kannan bt Katsushi Fukuda (Jpn) 6-4, 7-5; Takeshi Itoh (Jpn) bt Rohan Gajjar 6-3, 6-7 (2-7), 6-2; Brian Hung (Hkg) bt Hiu Tung Yu (Hkg) 6-3, 6-2; Prima Simpatiaji (Ina) bt Sunil Kumar 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2); Febi Widhiyanto (Ina) bt Kedar Tembe 7-6 (7-3), 6-3; Daniel Kiernan (GBR) bt Hayato Furukawa (Jpn) 7-5, 2-6, 6-3.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Vijay Kannan/Saurav Panja bt Rohan Gajjar/Saurabh Kohli 6-4, 6-4; Manoj Mahadevan/Rishi Sridhar bt Yew-Ming Si (Mas)/Jaco Mathew 6-4, 6-4; Stephen Amritraj (U.S.)/Prakash Amritraj w/o Vishaal Uppal/Mustafa Ghouse; Daniel Kiernan (GBR)/Ajay Ramaswami bt Kamala Kannan/Vinod Sridhar 7-5, 6-2.

Harsh has a good outing

Davis Cupper Harsh Mankad had a fruitful outing in the $10,000 ITF Futures tennis tournament in Lisbon, Portugal, last week.

Harsh reached the semifinals of the singles event, and won the doubles title, emphasising his increasing ability to play well on clay. He has taken his singles ranking to 375 and the doubles ranking to 325 in the latest ATP list.

The fifth-seeded Harsh lost 4-6, 5-7 to the sixth-seeded Miguel Angel Lopez-Jaen of Spain in the semifinals. He had earlier beaten Guillermo Platel of Spain 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.

In fact, Harsh was teased in the first round by Spaniard Carlos Rexach-Itoiz of Spain, but prevailed 2-6, 6-0, 6-3. He beat qualifier Eric Scherer of Germany 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) in the pre-quarterfinals.

In doubles, Harsh was seeded second with Leonardo Tavares of Portugal. The Indo-Portuguese pair beat Baptiste Dupuy and Gregory Girault of France 6-1, 6-2 in the final.

The duo had a walk-over from Marcos Jimenez-Letredo and Jose Pablo-Serna of Spain in the first round and beat Denis Matsukevitch of Russia and Ali Relata of Croatia 6-0, 6-3 in the quarterfinals.

In the semifinals, Harsh and Tavares overcame Clement Morel and Gilles Simon of France 6-4, 7-6 (8-6).

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