Sunday, Oct 12, 2003
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Tennis
By Khalyan N. Ashok
Yeu-Tzuoo Wang, who beat Prakash Amritraj, going for a forehand return at the ATP Challengr Series at Dharwad on Saturday. — Photo: K. Gopinathan
Wang meets the top seed, Danai Udomchoke of Thailand, who rallied to down the fourth seed, Rik De Voest of South Africa at 3-6, 6-2, 7-5. A lot was expected from Prakash, but somehow he failed to play up to his potential. He was rather tight with his normally smooth flowing strokes. He made a lot of errors when chips were down. Prakash was impressive with his serve and volleys, but only in patches. Down 3-5 in the first set, Prakash made concerted bid to break Wang in the ninth game, with the latter serving for the set, but Wang managed to hold on after five deuces and that, along with early breaks in the second set, took winds out of Prakash's sails. At 18, Wang, is a player of repute back home in Taiwan and he had already won a Challenger in Uzbekistan early this season. Prakash's is no stranger to him either as they had played doubles in a couple of events in their junior days. "I did not expect this to be easy, but I played a consistent game and stayed focussed on taking one point at a time. I, think I did well,'' said Wang after his victory. He was true in that assessment. He raised his level of consistency to a new level and kept the Indian on leash. Prakash's big serve, looked wobbly and he just came up with four aces in the match, and his returns, especially on the backhand, were shaky and adding to his woes, was a couple of points, which were gifted away on the net chord. Simply the ball didn't roll Prakash's way in this crucial tie. In the first set, Prakash dropped the serve in the sixth game, as after being pushed to deuce, he netted a backhand and then volleyed out to concede a break. Wang was quick to cash on it as he stretched his lead to 5-2 holding his serve in the next game. Prakash made a determined bid to crack his rival in the ninth game. After forcing four deuces, Prakash held the advantage when Wang slammed a return wide, but Prakash couldn't capitalise on it and Wang made it deuce No.5, with a forehand winner. Prakash's another return which was wide off the mark, put Wang on top and then Prakash virtually gifted the next point, when rushed to the net for backhand volley, but missed the line completely. That saw Wang hold the serve and take the set at 6-3. Having taken the first set, Wang put pressure, belting solid ground strokes and grabbed two quick breaks in the second set, in the third and fifth games, to go 4-1 up. Prakash at that stage had an uphill task and it needed an extraordinary effort to salvage the situation, but he simply went with the tide awash with unforced errors and sank without a fight.
In the other semifinals, The top seed, Danai Udomchoke, ranked 184, 60 points over his South African rival, Rik De Voest, played a strong and steady game from the baseline. He wore down his rival in the long rallies and emerged winner in a hard fought three setter, which lasted about 140 minutes. Later in the afternoon, Prakash Amritraj and Rik De Voest, wiped off their disappointment of the loss in singles, when they made their second straight doubles final on the current Challenger Series. The top seeded Indo-South African duo, beat Toshide Matsui of Japan and Udomchoke at 6-3, 6-2 in the semi-final. In Sunday's final, They will meet the Ratiwatana brothers from Thailand, Sonchai and Sanchat, who beat Michal Mertinak and Branislav Sekac of Slovakia at 7-6 (7-4), 7-5. "It is good to be in the doubles final again, though I am disappointed with singles defeat. Wang was very much different from other players I had come across in the tournament. His returns were a shade slow and that in a way upset my rhythm," said Prakash Amritraj. The results (Prefix indicate seedings) — Singles (Semifinals): 1-Danai Udomchoke (Tha) bt 4-Rik De Voest (RSA) 3-6, 6-2, 7-5; 3-Yeu Tzuoo Wang (Tpe) bt Prakash Amritaj (Ind ) 6-3, 6-1. Doubles (semifinals): 1- Prakash Amritraj (Ind)/Rik De Voest (RSA) bt 3-Toshide Matsui (Jpn)/ Danai Udomchoke (Tha) 6-3, 6-2; Sanchai/Sonchat Ratiwatana (Tha) bt Michal Mertinak/ Branislav Sekac (Svk) 7-6, (7-4), 7-5
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