The Hindu : Bad day for seeds

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 02, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Bad day for seeds

By Nandakumar Marar

MUMBAI, APRIL 1 . Favourites had an off-day and ended up on the casualty list, throwing the women's singles wide open in the $ 10,000 International Tennis Federation women's tennis Futures on Thursday.

Chia-Jing Chuang of Chinese Taipei, the top seed in the main draw, suffered against a charged-up Melanie South of Great Britain in the quarterfinal stage, losing 1-6, 4-6 at the Shivaji Park Gymkhana.

India's lone challenger, Rushmi Chakravarthi, met the same fate, losing to unseeded Yan Chong Chen of China in straight sets after a strangely subdued performance on a day of upsets in the Mother's Recipe-sponsored tournament. Thailand's Montinee Tangpong remains the only notable player in the women's semifinals.

Rushmi, seeded second in the women's draw and with a reputation to defend as the 357th-ranked player on the WTA list, could not get her game together, dropping three service games in the first set against the composed Chinese.

Chen seemed to be playing at a different level, winning the second, fourth and eighth games for the opening set, doing enough to retain the initiative despite breakbacks by her experienced Indian rival in the third and seventh.

Chen, listed way down the WTA ladder at 713, managed to maintain her momentum in the second set, thwarting Rushmi's attempt to break the stranglehold with an all-round display, wrapping up the match in 49 minutes.

Chuang went out at the hands of a confident Briton, picking up points with positive approach and incisive strokeplay to win the first set without breaking into a sweat. The top seed appeared to have settled down in the second with a break off Melanie's first service game, but failed to string enough points afterwards.

Melanie broke back at love in the sixth and capped her astonishing display with another break in the 10th to send out the biggest name in the women's singles draw.

The results:

Singles: Quarterfinals (Indians unless specified): Melanie South (Great Britain) bt Chia-Jung

Chuang (Chinese Taipei) 6-1, 6-4; Shu Jing Yang (China) bt Satomi Kinja (Japan) 6-4, 6-3; Yan Chong Chen (China) bt Rushmi Chakravarthi 6-3, 6-1; Montinee Tangphong (Thailand) bt Jie Hao (China) 1-6, 6-4, 7-5.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport