The Hindu : Debendra, Janani emerge champions

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 25, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Debendra, Janani emerge champions

By Our Sports Reporter

Debendra Das, the boys' under-14 singles title winner

CHENNAI, JAN. 24. Top seed Debendra Das of Maharashtra capitalised on Delhi boy Yuki Bhambri's sloppy show to post a 6-3, 6-2 win in the boys' final of the The Hindu-The Sportstar AITA (Super Series) junior under-14 tennis championship at the Krishnan Tennis Centre on Saturday.

In the girls' summit clash, Janani Suresh of Tamil Nadu lost her way after a perfect start but got her wits together in time to script a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Inayat Khosla of Chandigarh.

Debendra Das, the boys' under-14 singles title winner

The big-built Debendra was bang on target from the first point, outplaying the third seed Yuki with some consistent play from the baseline. With pinpoint groundstrokes, he took a 5-1 lead in the first set, breaking Yuki's serve in the first and third games.

Known for his consistency from the backcourt, the 12-year-old Yuki surprisingly failed to rise to the occasion, serving poorly and committing a lot of unforced errors on his forehand. He lost the set in quick time.

However, for a brief period, Yuki impressed the sparse gathering. With Debendra serving for the match at 5-1, Yuki approached the net and produced a couple of drop shots to unsettle his opponent. Having got the break, Yuki ran up a 40-0 lead on serve in the eighth game but made unforced errors to lose the game and match.

A consistent backcourt player, Janani proved that patience pays dividends. Janani, who did not make many unforced errors from the baseline, played more `moon' balls to Inayat's discomfort.

A trainee of Pro-Serve Academy (Coimbatore), Janani raced to a 4-0 lead before Inayat caught up at 5-4. But Janani closed out the first set in the 10th game when Inayat hit a forehand long.

Though each player traded breaks till the fourth game of the second set, Janani was more confident once she broke Inayat's serve in the fifth game and went on to claim her second AITA (under-14) title on her second matchpoint when Inayat's backhand found the net. The winner and runner-up gained 50 and 40 AITA points respectively.

Tennis legend Ramanathan Krishnan gave away the prizes.

The results (finals):

Boys: Debendra Das (Mah) bt Yuki Bhambri (Del) 6-3, 6-2.

Girls: Janani Suresh (TN) bt Inayat Khosla (Chd) 6-4, 6-2.

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