The Hindu : Punna ousts Middelkoop

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 27, 2003

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Punna ousts Middelkoop

By Kamesh Srinivasan

Photo: S. Subramanium

Pakistan's Aisam Ul-Haq Qureshi puts away a return as his partner, India's Harsh Mankad looks on, in their quarterfinal match against India's Karan Rastogi and Somdev Dev Varman in the ITF Futures tennis tournament in New Delhi on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI NOV. 26. Punna Vishal tamed third-seeded Matwe Middelkoop of the Nethelrands 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the pre-quarterfinals of the $10,000 ITF Futures tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Wednesday.

In an entertaining duel that lasted two hours and 40 minutes, Punna had the mental energy to swing the balance decisively in his favour in the climax, when the Dutch lost his cool, and threw it all away, including many a tantrum in the bargain.

Punna, who had made his maiden semifinal at this level last week, was high on confidence. As the match reached its climax, Punna was able to play with his usual fighting spirit, quite undaunted even when his opponent recovered from being 0-3 down to be on par at 3-3.

The Dutch lost his cool from 30-0 in the tenth game, and erred his way out, even as Punna played with a sure touch, not leaving anything unchallenged.

Middelkoop threw the racquet in disgust, across the net on to the far fence, before shaking hands with the opponent, cursing the umpire to his heart's content, calling him the worst he had ever come across on the chair.

Ranked 480 places above Punna, the 581st ranked Dutch had dropped serve similarly in the tenth game of the second set. He was upset with a few calls, but it should have been Punna who should have been upset, as the unqualified chair umpire had allowed Middelkoop to get away with many a violation, not in the least, repeated cases of racquet abuse.

In fact, it was a bad day for the British, as three players — Michael Ouvarov, Naim Lalji and Nicky Crawley — were eliminated.

Sunil Kumar was hungry and played with his wonted fluency to Crawley 6-0, 6-2, smacking winners with effortless grace.

Sunil will face Vinod Sridhar who twisted the proceedings around midway through the second set, after Vijay Kannan had looked to have gained a stranglehold over the match. Vijay eventually called a halt to the match in the first game of the second set, when he was down 15-40, complaining of a shoulder problem.

Naim Lalji could have teased the top-seeded Harsh Mankad a lot better with his elegant play, but he too suffered from a shoulder trouble, that did not respond to tape-therapy, and cried a halt to the match in the fourth game of the second set, after losing the first set.

Lalji was so frustrated, that he fired a wide serve miles away from the box, threw his racquet, and tore off his T-shirt into two pieces on his way to the net, before shaking hands with the opponent, even as the chair-umpire tried to call the referee, to provide an official stamp to the abrupt finish.

Harsh, who was not in his best form, but kept improving with the match, will be challenged by the 735th ranked Jasper Smit of the Netherlands in the quarterfinals.

The second-seeded Aisam Ul-Haq Qureshi had a fruitful day on court, winning his singles with surprising ease against Mikhail Ledovskikh of Russia, and then recovering from being a set down to beat the colts Karan Rastogi and Somdev Dev Varman in partnership with Harsh Mankad in the doubles quarterfinals.

Melvyn Op Der Heijde did not give much of an opening this day for Somdev Dev Varman, who had already done well to win four matches on the trot. Later, the Dutch partnered compatriot Matwe Middelkoop to down the champions of the last two weeks, the third-seeded Ajay Ramaswami and Sunil Kumar in three sets.

The results:

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Harsh Mankad bt Naim Lalji (GBR) 6-4, 2-1 (retd); Jasper Smit (Ned) bt Dias Doskarayev (Kaz) 1-6, 6-3, 6-1; Vinod Sridhar bt Vijay Kannan 4-6, 6-3 (retired); Sunil Kumar bt Nicky Crawley (GBR) 6-0, 6-2; Sergei Krotiouk (Rus) bt Michael Ouvarov (GBR) 2-6, 7-5, 6-3; Punna Vishal bt Matwe Middelkoop (Ned) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4; Aisam Ul-Haq Qureshi bt Mikhail Ledovskikh (Rus) 6-3, 6-2.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Aisam Ul-Haq Qureshi (Pak) & Harsh Mankad bt Somdev Dev Varman & Karan Rastogi 3-6, 6-1, 6-2; R. Arun Prakash & Divij Sharan bt Sarvar Ikramov (Uzb) & Sergei Krotiouk (Rus) 7-6 (7-0), 6-3; Matwe Middelkoop & Melvyn Op Der Heijde (Ned) bt Ajay Ramaswami & Sunil Kumar 6-3, 3-6, 6-4; Mustafa Ghouse & Vishaal Uppal bt Nitin Kirtane & Saurav Panja 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.

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