The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Liza gives Ankita a scare

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 28, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Liza gives Ankita a scare

By Kamesh Srinivasan

LUCKNOW, MAY 27. Title aspirant Ankita Bhambri escaped by the skin of her teeth from the clutches of Liza Pereira in the quarterfinals of the $10,000 ITF women's tennis tournament at the Oudh Gymkhana Club grasscourts here on Thursday.

The second-seeded Ankita was in a hopeless situation, not because she was an early break down both in the second and third sets after having lost the first rather tamely, but mainly because she lacked the rhythm and the confidence to play with her usual poise.

However, the 17-year-old Delhi girl put up a gutsy fare in two hours and 30 minutes in winning 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, even as the Mumbai lass, Liza contributed to her own downfall with a spell of below par tennis at a crucial juncture.

Maybe, the slowness of the court and the crafty play of Liza who mixed her forceful shots with delectable drops, teased Ankita. But, the Delhi girl revealed her vulnerability by not adapting to the situation, and got stranded at the baseline time and again.

To compound her problems, Ankita lacked the service rhythm and was broken four times in a row after having taken a 3-1 lead in the first set, which saw her lose seven games in a row. The poor play got to the nerves of Ankita's father Dr. Chander, and he walked away from the arena in disgust.

It was to the credit of Ankita that she put her game together, even as Liza made the job easier by dropping serve in the seventh and ninth games of the second set with double faults. Ankita had saved two breakpoints in the fourth game of the second set after having broken Liza for 1-2 to stay afloat.

It looked a similar story in the decider, when Liza raced up a 3-1 lead, with a break in the third game. Ankita saved three breakpoints in the fifth game, and swung the match around, as she began to find her touch.

There was a danger of Ankita being slapped a point penalty, as she was warned for the `coaching' support that she got from the sidelines, but she kept her cool to break Liza decisively in the tenth game. Liza saved three matchpoints with sharp winners, but succumbed to the fourth, as Ankita clenched her left fist in triumph.

With the win Ankita took her career head-to-head record against Liza to 3-2. She had beaten Liza rather easily in their last meeting last year.

Ankita will meet the fourth-seeded Sai Jayalakshmy, who overcame the challenge from the 845th ranked Nudnida Luangnam of Thailand in straight sets.

The seventh-seeded Archana Venkataraman started on the wrong note, trailing 0-3 but changed gears brilliantly that she allowed only two more games for her opponent, Yi Chen of Chinese Taipei.

Archana will be up against the top-seeded Rushmi Chakravarthi, who had won all their six previous meetings in international competition. Rushmi announced her ominous form by blanking Orawan Lamangthong of Thailand. It was the first time in her international career that Rushmi was beating a player without dropping a game.

With her big serves, punchy shots and a silken smooth backhand slice, Rushmi, who was quite fluent with her movement on court, dissected her Thai opponent with clinical precision.

In an interesting coincidence, the Indian brigade marched into the doubles finals as well, and all the four singles semifinalists booked their berth.

Despite a squall uprooting the `shamiana' and the back-screens in the evening, the doubles semifinals were completed after about an hour's interruption, as some of the players had booked their ticket for Friday morning to Delhi for the next tournament.

The results:

Singles (quarterfinals): Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Orawan Lamangthong (Tha) 6-0, 6-0; Archana Venkataraman bt Yi Chen (Tpe) 6-3, 6-2; Sai Jayalakshmy bt Nudnida Luangnam (Tha) 7-6 (7-3), 6-3; Ankita Bhambri bt Liza Pereira 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Doubles (semifinals): Ankita Bhambri & Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Orawan Lamangthong & Varanya Vijuksanaboon (Tha) 6-2, 6-1; Sai Jayalakshmy & Archana Venkataraman bt Geeta Manohar & Liza Pereira 6-1, 7-5.

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