Monday, Mar 15, 2004
Monday, Mar 15, 2004 |
| Sport | ||||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Tamil Nadu |
Andhra Pradesh |
Karnataka |
Kerala |
New Delhi |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Sport
-
Tennis
By Amitabha Das Sharma
Somdev Dev Varman speaks on the phone after his triumph. — Photo: Sushanta Patronobish
KOLKATA, MARCH 14. A double-fisted backhand return saw the ball take a whiff of the chalked line and fly out unchallenged to the advertisement board behind. The thud announced, like a clang of ceremonial gong, a `service break' and the completion of a fascinating battle. The champion was Somdev Dev Varman. The unseeded and unheralded Indian teenager won the ONGC-ITF Futures title capping a week of outstanding tennis that saw him master one seed after another. The singles final on Sunday at Saturday Club's red clay had Dev Varman scripting yet another straight-set (6-4, 6-2) win and his victim this time was the fourth-seeded Bulgarian Yordan Kanev. This was the kind of finish one could have wished for seeing his exploits in the earlier rounds. He had beaten the sixth-seeded Indonesian Febi Widhiyanto before seeing off the top-seeded Bulgarian Todor Enev in the quarterfinals and fittingly enough, Kanev too was drawn into the sequence of upsets. Like the ideally happy ending so often dealt on reel, the last Futures meet on the Indian itinerary had a perfect finish with both the titles lifted by the home players. Vishal Uppal and Mustafa Ghouse formed the champion team winning the doubles crown on Saturday while Dev Varman put the icing on the cake with his cameo in the singles final. The singles final took shades of tentativeness as both Dev Varman and Kanev showed starting problems in the highly charged match. Kanev gained in the bargain initially as the first three games went against service. The Bulgarian led the charge `breaking' Dev Varman twice while conceding one himself. The Indian, in all his eagerness for trying out winners, ended up with unforced errors giving Kanev the advantage. But this did not last long as Dev Varman soon warmed up to his domineering poise and was ruling over the proceedings by the seventh game. Gaining on his strong baseline game, Dev Varman broke Kanev in the eighth game to set honours even. He then held his own service in the ninth game and thundered a couple of forehand winners in the 10th game turning the tables on the Bulgarian to win the first set. The second set saw Dev Varman in the damaging act right from the start as he kept consistently working on the sharpness of his forehand returns. The Bulgarian lost his service in the second game and Dev Varman raced to a 3-0 lead successfully preserving his own service. With the Indian cutting down on his mistakes, the pressure was on the Bulgarian who finally cracked in the eighth game trailing 2-5. He sent two successive returns wide to hand Dev Varman a break point. The Indian failed to avail it but finished it off all right after deuce. Dev Varman gained the advantage with a brilliant drop near the net and accomplished the break with a double-fisted backhand return that beat Kanev all ends up. Dev Varman had made his graduation to the senior stage with flying colours. It now remains to be seen how the National Tennis Academy ward plans his next move to reach the higher grades.
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Tamil Nadu |
Andhra Pradesh |
Karnataka |
Kerala |
New Delhi |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home |
Copyright © 2004, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
