Sport - Tennis   

Wang-Ting ousts Sanaa

By Kamesh Srinivasan

Liu Wang-Ting of China, who upset fourth-seeded Sanaa Bhambri of India in the first round match of the Asian juniors tennis tournament in New Delhi on Tuesday, stretches for a return. — Photo: S. Subramanium

NEW DELHI DEC. 9. Sport may be played more in the mind, but it is tough to play from memory, no matter how good a memory you have.

The fourth-seeded Sanaa Bhambri was made to realise this factor, as the she was blown off court by an unfancied Liu Wang-Ting of China 6-0, 6-2 in the first round of the Asian junior tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Tuesday.

Though she had made it to the semifinals of the Grade `III' tournament last week in Kuala Lumpur, the 15-year-old Sanaa has been grappling with an indifferent form recently.

After a hectic season, when she had done well to make it to the semifinals of the French Open junior doubles with Sania Mirza, the Delhi girl has been out of action for about two months because of a stress fracture of the wrist, on her serving left-arm.

After struggling with the first seven games in the match, when she littered the court with errors, Sanaa found some sort of form to engage the Chinese into rallies. However, the winners were far too few from her racquet to trouble the unassuming Chinese who stroked her way through, in causing the biggest upset of the day.

There was, of course, considerable consolation for the Bhambri family, as elder sister Ankita, the finalist here last year, cruised through in setting up a second round with I-Hsuan Hwang of Chinese Taipei, another tough customer.

The fifth-seeded Madura Ranganathan literally found Ashmitha Easwaramurthi a pain in her neck, before patiently hitting her ground-strokes firmly to a 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 triumph. Ashmitha had fought well to recover from 1-4 down in the first set, but lacked the experience to drive home the advantage when she was up 3-0 in the second set.

The results:

Boys singles (first round): Chu-Huan Yi (Tpe) bt Kaushik Raju 6-4, 6-1; Sumit Prakash Gupta bt Arnav Jain 6-1, 6-1; Tushar Liberhan bt Anshuman Dutta 6-0, 6-1; Vijit Sehgal bt N.S. Nishendran (Sri) 5-7, 6-3, 6-4; Rupesh Roy bt Jeevan Nedunchezhian 6-0, 6-1; Somdev Dev Varman bt Alon Moses 6-1, 6-2.

Boys doubles (pre-quarterfinals): R. Arun Prakash & Divij Sharan bt Sanam Singh & Jeevan Nedunchezhian 6-3, 6-3; Chu Huan Yi & Chun Yuan Chen (Tpe) bt Prateek Shantaraju & Siddharth Patil 6-1, 6-2; Sumit Prakash Gupta & Vikram Aditya Menon bt N. S. Nishendran (Sri) & Sunu Wahyu Trijati (Ina) 2-6, 6-4, 7-5; Aditya Madkekar & Wrik Ganguly bt Arnav Jain & Manu Bajpai 6-3, 4-6, 6-3; Siddharth Gulati & Jitin Bishnoi bt Kaushik Raju & Kartik Raju 6-1, 6-2; Martin Sayer & Cheuk Wai Hui (Hkg) bt Xiao Peng Lai (Hkg) & Navdeep Singh 6-3, 6-3; Tushar Liberhan & Saurabh Kohli bt Vijay Sunder Prashant & Rohan Gide 6-4, 6-4; Karan Rastogi & Somdev Dev Varman bt Anshuman Dutta & Rupesh Roy 6-1,6-1.

Girls singles (first round): Yung-Jan Chan (Tpe) bt Nidhi Shah 6-1, 6-2; Madura Ranganathan bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi 7-6 (7-2), 7-5; Liu Wang-Ting (Chn) bt Sanaa Bhambri 6-0, 6-2; Ayu Fani Damayanti (Ina) bt Nudnida Luangnam (Tha) 6-2, 6-2; Ankita Bhambri bt Varsha Dutta 6-0, 6-1; Shuai Zhang (Chn) bt Parul Goswami 6-1, 6-1; Pichittra Thongdach (Tha) 6-1, 6-0.

Girls doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Shuai Zhang & Liu Wan Ting (Chn) bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi & Kartiki Bhat 6-2, 6-0; Sandri Gangotri & Sandhya Nagaraj bt Nidhi Shah & S. Preethi 6-4, 6-1; Yung-Jan Chan (Tpe) & Isha Lakhani bt Madura Ranganathan & Vandana Murali 6-0, 6-2; Punam Reddy & Krushmi Chheda bt G. K. Shweta & Marutha Devi 6-0, 6-4; I-Hsuan Hwang & Wen-Hsin Hsu (Tpe) bt Shraddha Lodha & Pooja Kommireddi 6-2, 6-2; Pichittra Thongdach & Nudnida Luangnam (Tha) bt Vishakha Sheoran & Karina Ahuja 6-2, 6-3; Ankita Bhambri & Sanaa Bhambri bt Poojashree Venkatesh & Parija Maloo 6-2, 6-1; Denise Harijanto & Ayu Fani Damayanti (Ina) bt Jilke Nelord & Neha Rana 6-0, 6-0.

Boys under-14 (pre-quarterfinals): Arnav Jain bt Frendy Gunawan (Ina) 6-2, 6-4; Agung Bagus Dewantoro (Ina) bt Chan Hu Yun (Tpe) 6-1, 6-0; Agnel Gladwin bt Prince Niroshan (Sri) 6-0, 6-0; Tariq Jacob bt Naydynov Stanislav (Tkm) 6-1, 6-3.

Girls under-14 (pre-quarterfinals): Ashmitha Easwaramurthi bt Thavindra Eknayake (Sri) 6-2, 6-3; Poojashree Venkatesh bt Karina Ahuja 6-0, 6-1; Parija Maloo bt Lutfiana Aris Budiharto (Ina) 6-2, 6-2; G. K. Shweta bt Jithmie Jayawickrema (Sri) 6-0, 6-1; First round : Parija Maloo bt Gayatri Krishnan 6-4, 6-2.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

Cricket

• Intriguing turn in Kumble's fortunes
• Vidyut, Ramkumar help TN recover
• Greg Chappell to write for The Hindu
• Can Kandy shed its `wretched' image?
• Hayden's distinction
• A decisive shift of power?
  
  Tennis
  
• Wang-Ting ousts Sanaa
  
  Chess
  
• Humpy, Barua shocked; Ganguly takes lead
  
  Golf
  
• Atwal's hour of achievement
• Randhawa finishes 17th
  
  Racing : Motor
  
• Narain to test for Minardi
  
  Sports : General
  
• Sajjan Kumar emerges overall winner
  
  Table Tennis
  
• Karthik packs off Prabhu
  
  Shooting
  
• Moraad keeps his cool, takes title
  
  

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu