The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Ravishankar moves up

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 09, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Ravishankar moves up

By Kamesh Srinivasan

INDORE, JUNE 8. He may have been based in the U.S. for the last four years, but Pathanjali Ravishankar has not forgotten his touch game. Serving and volleying with refreshing confidence, the Chennai left-hander got past lucky-loser Ashutosh Singh 7-6 (8-6), 4-6, 6-4 in the first round of the Shimla ITF Satellite tennis tournament at the Indore Tennis Club courts here on Tuesday.

On a day when a sudden spell of rain delayed the proceedings by about three hours, qualifier Ravishankar played the key points well to pip the Delhi lad at the post.

It was Ashutosh who started better, as he broke Ravishankar in the sixth game, when the latter double-faulted on breakpoint. Ashutosh had a point for 5-2 also, but he dropped his serve in that seventh game. Later, in the tenth game, Ashutosh had two set points on Ravishankar's serve, but the latter played sensibly in warding off the danger.

The 21-year-old Ravishankar, who served nine aces in the match, called the shots in the tie-break, and things were on even keel till Ashutosh broke the left-hander in the fifth game of the second set, and held serve with ease thereafter to put things on par. Both played quality games in the decider, but Ravishankar had an edge because of his sharpness, and he broke Ashutosh in the tenth game to settle the matter, in a contest that lasted nearly three hours.

Ravishankar will meet the fourth-seeded Vijay Kannan who did not break into a sweat as his opponent, Roger Lacaci-Dominguez of Spain conceded early in the second set because of a back strain.

The 31-year-old Srinath broke fellow qualifier Kiran Kumar in the 11th games of the two sets in recording a 7-5, 7-5 victory in an hour and 46 minutes. The 22-year-old Kamala Kannan, another qualifier like Srinath, beat Timothy Patient of Britain, as the latter tended to produce double-faults at crucial junctures, like when he landed three of them in the eighth game of the second set in getting broken decisively.

The results:

Singles (first round): Richard Irwin (GBR) bt Luke Campbell (GBR) 6-4, 6-4; Saurav Panja bt Jaume Barberan-Miguel (Esp) 6-2, 6-0; Ajay Ramaswami bt Yannick Nelord 6-1, 6-2; Vijay Kannan bt Roger Lacaci-Diminguez (Esp) 6-1, 1-0 (retired); Pathanjali Ravishankar bt Ashutosh Singh 7-6 (8-6), 4-6, 6-4; David Brewer (GBR) bt Hiu-Tung Yu (Hkg) 6-4, 6-4; Mait Kunnap (Est) bt Rishi Sridhar 6-4, 6-2; Kamala Kannan bt Timothy Patient (GBR) 7-6 (7-3), 6-3; Prahlad Srinath bt N. Kiran Kumar 7-5, 7-5; Joshua Goodall (GBR) bt Pratim Parekh 6-2, 6-0; Jaco Mathew bt Shreyansh Sacheti 6-3, 6-2; Norikazu Sugiyama (Jpn) bt Mat Lowe (GBR) 6-4, 6-1.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Norikazu Sugiyama (Jpn) and Vijay Kannan bt Saurav Panja and Shivang Mishra 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.

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