The Hindu : Shruti shuts out Takagishi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 20, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Shruti shuts out Takagishi

By Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI, JAN. 19. Shruti Dhawan played with confidence when it mattered to oust fifth-seeded Tomoyo Takagishi of Japan 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 in the first round of the $10,000 ITF women's tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Monday.

On a cold and windy day, Shruti tended to lose her rhythm in spells, but retained her determination to stroke her way past the Japanese, in a steady baseline battle.

The Chandigarh girl will next meet Sandhya Nagaraj who beat the 728th raked Po-Kuen Lam of Hong Kong 6-4, 6-3.

Sheethal Goutham was quite pleased to win a good match after a long time, as she beat the more fancied Samrita Sekar 7-6 (7-4), 6-3.

Having played the qualifying event, Sheethal was in good touch, and got off to a good start, taking a 4-1 lead. Samrita stroked nicely to get back into the match, but Sheethal was better in the tie-break and that proved decisive in the eventual analysis. A string of double-faults put paid to Samrita's aspirations to make a match of it.

Sheethal will meet the winner of the match between the top-seeded Isha Lakhani and Nandini Perumal.

Sonal Phadke, who had won a round last week in Dubai, played well but was pipped in the crucial points by Diana Julianto of Indonesia in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, in a keen contest.

Diana had the advantage of the coaching guidance of the former top player, Yayuk Basuki, and played very well to make her coach feel proud.

There was a shock elimination of Isha and Megha Vakharia, the champions of the doubles event last week, in the first round of doubles. It looked to be keeping in tune with the flow of the day, as the top-seeded Rushmi Chakravarthi and Sai Jayalakshmy had been eliminated earlier in the day, in straight sets by the Thai combination of Montinee Tangphon and Thasha Vitayaviroj.

The fact that Sai has had a dental surgery last week in Hyderabad was one of the reasons for the teething trouble the doubles pair had on court this day in combining with usual efficacy.

The results:

Singles (first round): Sheethal Goutham bt Samrita Sekar 7-6 (7-4), 6-3; Thassa Vitayaviroj (Tha) btWilan Coptang (Ta) 6-2, 6-4; Diana Julianto (Ina) bt Sonal Phadke 6-4, 6-4; Shruti Dhawan bt Tomoyo Takagishi (Jpn) 6-1, 5-7, 6-3; Sandhya Nagara bt Po-Kuen Lam (Hkg) 6-4, 6-3;I-Hsuan Hwang (Tpe) bt Yi Chen (Tpe) 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Montinee Tangphong & ThashaVitayavioj (Tha) bt Rushmi Chakravarthi & Sai Jayalakshmy 6-3, 6-3; Yi Chen (Tpe) & Maya Rosa (Ina) bt Isha Lakhani & Megha Vakharia 4-6, 6-4, 6-0; Sandy Gumulya & Septi Mende (Ina) bt Po-Kuen Lam (Hk) & Sonal Phadke 6-2, 6-3; Giorgia Mortello & Lisa Tognetti (Ita) bt Sheethal Goutham & Iciri Rai 6-3, 6-3; Ankita Bhambri & Shruti Dhawan bt Vishika Chhetri & Parul Goswami 6-4, 6-1.

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