Paes survives a Welgreen scare

By Kamesh Srinivasan

CHANDIGARH, FEB. 20. Leander Paes enacted yet another great escape as he wriggled out of the clutches of Nir Welgreen of Israel 7-5, 6-7 (1-7), 7-6 (7-1) in the first round of the Indian Oil Servo $ 25,000 Challenger tennis tournament at the CLTA Stadium here on Tuesday.

It was a tense match to behold for the hundreds of cheering spectators, as there was as much of gamesmanship, mostly from the Israeli, as there were swings in fortune.

``He brought out the worst in me today. Tennis-wise he was not going to trouble me. It was tough to keep my concentration level because of his antics'', said Leander, who was slapped a code violation warning by the chair-umpire for audible obscenity. Of course, the Israeli received two such code violations, including one for visible obscenity.

There was no hint of the ensuing drama as Leander led 5-2 in the second set, after having clinched the first set with a decisive break in the 12th game. A 41-minute rain interval did not upset the concentration of Leander, and he continued smoothly from 2-1 to 5-2 in the second set, and even had a matchpoint in the tenth game.

To his credit, the Israeli was a fighter to the core, and came up with a lob and a spectacular backhand down-the-line winner to save the matchpoint, and pushed the contest into the decider by clinching the tie-break in style.

Welgreen did play quite solid at times, but mostly he was busy playing on the nerves of Leander, as he seemed to know the trick, having teased the Indian No.1 last week during his straight-set defeat in the first round of the Mumbai event.

Leander complained many times that the Israeli was taking too much time between his first and second serves, and even went to the extent of questioning his knowledge of tennis etiquette when the Israeli danced around to disturb him while receiving a second serve.

To be fair, Leander could hardly put his first serves after leading 5-2 in the second set, and it was no surprise that he started facing breakpoints one after the other. In the decider, Leander saved five breakpoints and led 4-3 with a break in the seventh game, but surrendered the advantage by getting broken with a doublefault in the eighth game.

However, the climax brought back the best from Leander, much to the delight of the cheering fans, as he delivered good first serves, including one that was so strong that it broke his guts, but set him up five matchpoints.

Leander hit a return winner to clinch the contest that spaned two hours and 56 minutes. It was indeed a bright finish in gloomy conditions. Leander had six aces and seven doublefaults, but what won him the day was his 20 volley winners, though it had to be conceded that he messed up quite a few at the net.

``I enjoy playing here on the centrecourt. I had won my first Davis Cup match here, and I had also won my first ITF junior title on these courts. I have a lot of good memories'', said Leander, who had last played here in 1993 in the Davis Cup semifinals against Australia.

Meanwhile, the top-seeded Dennis van Scheppingen of Holland proved a little too strong for wild card entrant Prakash Amritaraj. The 17-year-old Indian, who shares his birthday with Mahatma Gandhi, showed enough signs that he would make it big some day, following the footprints of his illustrious father, Vijay Amritaraj.

Prakash even took a 2-0 lead in the second set, after letting things drift from 3-2 in the first set. The lack of experience at this level showed, as Prakash hurried with his shots and got passed.

The youngster did excel with a few crisp volleys, and some rousing winners on the forehand. Considering that Mahesh Bhupathi could eke out a mere five games from Scheppingen last week, Prakash was quite good against the seasoned pro in only his second match in the big league.

The results:

Singles (first round): Dennis van Scheppingen (Ned) bt Prakash Amritaraj 6-3, 6-4; Gerald Mandl (Aut) bt Dmitri Tomashevich (Uzb) 6-4, 7-5; Ota Fukarek (Cze) bt Ladislav Svarc (Svk) 6-3, 4- 6, 6-4; Frantisek Cermak (Dze) bt Stefano Galvani (Ita) 4-6, 6-4, 6-2; Radek Stepanek (Cze) bt Serguei Pozdnev (Rus) 6-1, 6-4; Leander Paes bt Nir Welgreen (Isr) 7-5, 6-7 (1-7), 7-6 (7-1); Noam Okun (Isr) bt Nitin Kirtane 6-7 (4-7), 6-1, 6-0; Martin Spottl (Aut) bt Brandon Hawk (U.S.) 6-2, 7-6 (10-8).

Doubles (pre-quarterfinal): Frantisek Cermak & Radek Stepanek (Cze) bt Stefano Cobolli (Ita) & Serguei Pozdnev (Rus) 6-0, 4-3 (retd.).

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