The Hindu : Nitin finds his touch, downs Maamoun

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 25, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Nitin finds his touch, downs Maamoun

By Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI, FEB. 24. Nitin Kirtane found his touch of yore. Combining deception with direction in a thoughtful game, the old warhorse recovered from being a set down to mesmerise Karim Maamoun of Egypt in the first round of the Syndicate Bank $10,000 ITF men's Futures tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Tuesday.

Forced to come through the qualifying event, for lack of any ATP points in his account, Nitin struggled to find his rhythm initially. However, once he found his touch, the left-hander sizzled much to the joy of his numerous supporters who cheered him through his 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 triumph.

It has been long since Nitin had strung together a series of impressive wins, and it was understandable when Nitin, watched by his wife, thrust both his arms heavenwards, letting out a cry of jubilation on a task well accomplished.

Nitin also won his doubles match later in the day with Manoj Mahadevan, defeating Maamoun for the second time.

It was a fruitful day for some of the other Indians as well, as Ajay Ramaswami, Sunil Kumar and Rohan Bopanna made it to the pre-quarterfinals. Of course, it was all-Indian clash, as Ajay beat the latest Davis Cup recruit, Punna Vishal in straight sets.

Like Nitin, Ajay is also reaping the rewards of playing a good qualifying event that has sharpened his game for the task ahead. It should be an interesting clash when he takes on Febi Widhiyanto of Indonesia.

Sunil Kumar played an impressive game, serving big and stroking with punch and poise in overwhelming the Afro-Asian Games champion Vijay Kannan in straight sets.

The big-game player who has a soft touch as a surprise element, Tereshchuk was tested well by Vinod Sridhar, but the latter undid all his good work when he delivered a double fault while just two points away from winning the contest at 6-5, 30-30 in the decider.

Vinod had played courageously in tackling his powerful opponent, and had broken him to take the scoreline to 6-5 before losing his way. In the tie-break Vinod took a 4-3 lead, but was a bit tentative thereafter, losing a golden chance.

Meanwhile, returning from a bicep injury, Rohan Bopanna did not have to exert himself much against Denis Isaev of Uzbekistan, ranked about 860 places below him. It should be interesting to see how well Tushar Liberhan handles the seasoned player.

Ashutosh Singh teased the second-seeded Aisam Ul-Haq Qureshi with his all-round game, matching the Pakistani volley for volley. However, he missed five set-points in the second set tie-break in bringing the curtains down rather abruptly on an exciting contest, in which he had saved two matchpoints. Aisam had started well, reeling off the first five games, breaking the Delhi lad in the second and fourth games. But the Pakistani was unable to break the Indian's serve thereafter. In fact, even in those two games, when he got broken, Ashutosh had two gamepoints in one and had played deuce after being 0-40 in the other.

Another Delhite,Vishaal Uppal also missed a set-point in the tenth game of the second set, as he went down in straight sets to qualifier Sarvar Ikramov of Uzbekistan. His elimination in the first round emphasised the fact that serve and volley without strong groundstrokes cannot take you far, particularly on a surface with true bounce.

The results:

Singles (first round): Todor Enev (Bul) bt Filip Aniola (Pol) 6-1, 6-4; Dmitri Mazur (Uzb) bt Rainer Eitzinger (Aut) 7-6 (7-3), 7-5; Ajay Ramaswami bt Punna Vishal 6-3, 6-4; Febi Widhiyanto (Ina) bt Dusan Karol (Cze) 6-2, 6-1; Orest Tereshchuk (Ukr) bt Vinod Sridhar 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5); Sunil Kumar bt Vijay Kannan 6-2, 6-4; Filip Urban (Pol) bt Markus Egger (Aut) 6-3, 6-4; Yordan Kanev (Bul) bt Norikazu Sugiyama (Jpn) 6-4, 6-3; Alexey Kedriouk (Kaz) bt Prima Simpatiaji (Ina) 6-4, 6-4; Patrick Schmolzer (Aut) bt Jaco Mathew 6-7 (1-7), 6-2, 6-1; Rohan Bopanna bt Denis Isaev (Uzb) 6-0, 7-5; Nitin Kirtane bt Karim Maamoun (Egy) 4-6, 6-3, 6-3; Sarvar Ikramov (Uzb) bt Vishaal Uppal 6-2, 7-6 (7-1); Aisam Ul-Haq Qureshi (Pak) bt Ashutos Singh 6-1, 7-6 (13-11).

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Nitin Kirtane/Manoj Mahadevan bt Dusan Karol (Cze)/Karim Mammoun (Egy) 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.

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