The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Rushmi wins second successive title

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 06, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Rushmi wins second successive title

By Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI, JUNE 5. The top-seeded Rushmi Chakravarthi asserted her authority yet again, as she won her second successive singles crown in the $10,000 ITF women's tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday.

With a clinical 6-4, 6-4 win over the second-seeded Ankita Bhambri, who had tested her better in a three-setter on grass in Lucknow last Saturday, the 26-year-old Rushmi who trains with coach Ilyas Hussain at the Triangular Tennis Trust in Chennai, became the second Indian after Sania Mirza to win back to back titles.

The Indian Oil officer also took her tally to seven titles from 12 finals at this level, and pocketed $1600 for the week-long exercise, during which she did not drop more than four games in a set to any opponent. In fact, Rushmi conceded 20 games in all to five opponents in the whole tournament, which underlined her supremacy.

On a warm afternoon, when the breeze made it a pleasant exercise for the sparse gathering that appreciated the quality fare, it was Rushmi who called the shots once she found her range after a bout of over hitting in the initial phase.

The 17-year-old Ankita, looking for her maiden title at this level, started on the wrong foot, dropping serve in the first game.

Rushmi saved two breakpoints to hold serve in the next, but dropped her serve in the fourth game, with a string of errors, including one of her two doublefaults in the match.

Thereafter, Rushmi played the waiting game and grabbed the chance when Ankita dropped serve in the ninth game with a doublefault on the fourth breakpoint. For one who had served two of her three aces in the seventh game, it was an inexplicable slip on the part of Ankita.

The inability to dictate the rallies, and the fact that she was reduced to retrieving for the most part did not help the confidence of the Delhi girl, and Ankita dropped serve in the third game of the second set, which proved decisive eventually.

Rushmi was by now serving with her usual rhythm, and dropped only seven points in her five service games in the second set, that left little breathing space for Ankita to find her way back into the match.

Even in the first set, except for struggling in the second game and losing serve in the fourth, Rushmi had conceded only three points in all in her next three service games.

Ankita showed urgency in patches, like when she played a sharp game and approached the net for a crisp overhead to save a breakpoint in the fifth game of the second set. Otherwise, she did not have the game to stretch Rushmi this day.

Rushmi, on the other hand, relished hitting her strokes with a flourish on both the flanks, and spiced the treat with delectable drop shots and razor-sharp slicing that cut her opponent's challenge to ribbons.

Rushmi had as many as 24 winners including three volleys, apart from an ace and two service winners. Ankita, in contrast, had only nine winners apart from three aces, a tally that was grossly inadequate to tackle the country's best woman player on the WTA computer.

With 12 WTA points from the two tournaments, Rushmi will have a solid platform to work on during the rest of the season in tournaments abroad. She may try her hand at a Challenger in Korea by the end of the month.

With a $170,000 WTA tournament slated to be held in Bangalore in September, Rushmi will have all the incentive to sharpen her game in the next three months.

Ankita is scheduled to go to Spain for a month to train at the Emilio Sanchez Academy, and that stint should add to her repertoire, possibly provide some muscle to her groundstrokes that lack sting at the moment.

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