Sport - Tennis   

Arun Prakash and Isha corner glory

By Kamesh Srinivasan

A delighted Isha Lakhani and Arun Prakash of India, who won the girls' and boys' under-18 crowns respectively at the Asian junior tennis tournament in New Delhi on Saturday, pose with their trophies. — Photo: S. Subramanium

NEW DELHI DEC. 13. After a heavy spell of rain overnight, there was a lot of smiles on the Indian faces in the afternoon, under bright sunshine, as R. Arun Prakash and Isha Lakhani captured the boys' and girls' titles respectively in the Asian junior tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday.

It was a welcome double triumph for the Indian camp, after Sunil Kumar and Sania Mirza had taken turns to assert their supremacy in the last two editions held at the same venue.

Both Arun Prakash and Isha Lakhani showed considerable expertise and authority in overwhelming their talented Chinese Taipei opponents, in an entertaining exhibition of all-round craft and steely determination.

It was as clinical a display as one would have expected from Arun Prakash, who has been training at the Randy Mani Tennis Academy in New York for nearly a year. Blunting the big serves of the third-seeded Chu-Huan Yi with smart returns, crisp volleys and energetic court coverage, not to forget an intense concentration, Arun won 6-4, 6-4 in about an hour.

Arun was quite thrilled to cap a memorable year with the title. He had won a grade `II' event in Hong Kong and one grade `III' in the U.S. Blushing about the hiccups, the two-time National junior champion, Arun said that he would sharpen his game better to be able to finish quickly.

There was no such problem for Isha Lakhani. Her match finished long before anyone expected the curtains to come down, as the top-seeded Yung-Jan Chan threw in the towel, complaining of a back-ache when Isha led 6-4, 3-0.

It was Chan who had a better start as she led 4-2, with a break in the fifth game, but Isha played increasingly better as the match progressed and exasperated her opponent with solid strokes, down the flanks and across. With her confidence broken much before her back pleaded for mercy, the 15th-ranked Taipei girl conceded the match, even as the referee Birbal Wadhera offered to call for medical aid.

Meanwhile, in the under-14 event, Agung Bagus Dewantoro of Indonesia beat Agnel Gladwin 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 for the boys' title while G.K. Shweta overpowered Ashmita Easwaramoorthi 7-5, 6-0 in the girls' final.

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