The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Focus on Ankita

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 24, 2004

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Sport - Tennis

Focus on Ankita

By Kamesh Srinivasan

LUCKNOW, MAY 23. She had stolen the show in the recent Fed Cup in New Delhi. Ankita Bhambri had played her role so well in that Asia-Oceania competition that she was able to overshadow the hottest player in the Indian women's circuit, Sania Mirza.

With Sania having reached Italy for a fresh training stint with Bob Brett, the erstwhile coach of Boris Becker and Goran Ivanisevic, the 17-year-old Ankita has opted to enhance her reputation in the ITF women's circuit.

The Delhi girl may have been seeded No.2 behind Rushmi Chakravarthi, but the focus will be on Ankita in the $10,000 ITF women's tennis tournament to be played on the grasscourts of the Oudh Gymkhana Club here from Monday.

The fact that she has not crossed the semifinals in such tournaments will be a challenge to overcome for Ankita, a lot more than what the friendly field may offer. With the confidence of having qualified for the $140,000 WTA Tour event in Hyderabad early this season apart from winning three of the four singles matches in the Fed Cup, Ankita will start her campaign against the wild card entrant Sandri Gangothri.

Having practised on the grasscourts of the Gymkhana Club in the capital, Ankita may have the necessary confidence to play at her best on the unpredictable surface. Though she has a good serve, that may help her win some quick points, volleying is not her forte as yet.

The point, however, is that very few players approach the net at this level, and thus Ankita like most others may stay at the backcourt to test the intensity of her groundstrokes.

Unlike Ankita, who is yet to add to her two titles in the Masters events of the developmental $5000 circuit, Rushmi Chakravarthi has won many titles in singles and doubles at the $10,000 level. In fact, her last ITF singles title came in this region in a similar tournament in Muzaffar Nagar last year. The top seed has the eighth-seeded Iciri Rai in her quarter and should be able to make the final unless she falters badly on the way.

The third-seeded Sonal Phadke and the gutsy seventh seed Archana Venkataraman are in the second quarter. Sonal starts against Geeta Manohar and Archana will meet Varanya Vijuksanaboon of Thailand.

The fourth-seeded Sai Jayalakshmy should fancy a semifinal berth if she plays close to her potential, but the tournament director, J.S. Kaul, alerts one about the presence of the fifth-seeded Susanne Aigner of Austria, who impressed everyone with her all-round game in the only qualifying round, in the same quarter as the Indian Oil officer from Chennai.

The sixth-seeded Liza Pereira will be up against her former doubles partner Sheethal Goutham, and the national junior champion Punam Reddy starts against Chirashanthi Rajur.

Overall, it should be an interesting competition though most of the early rounds may not throw many surprises. The absence of Isha Lakhani and Megha Vakharia, out with injuries, and the fact that Shruti Dhawan is busy with tournaments in England may rob the tournament of some charm, but the assembled players should provide a quality fare.

The seedings: 1. Rushmi Chakravarthi, 2. Ankita Bhambri, 3. Sonal Phadke, 4. Sai Jayalakshmy, 5. Susanne Aigner (Aut), 6. Liza Pereira, 7. Archana Venkataraman and 8. Iciri Rai.

The results (qualifying event):

First and final round: Susanne Aigner (Aut) bt Oormila Ram 6-3, 6-0; Sagarika Phadke bt Samia Jalali 6-3, 6-2; Anupama Rajur bt Shilpi Jaiswal 6-4, 6-0; Dorian Driessen (Ned) bt Bhaswati Sarma 6-1, 6-0.

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