The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Prateek, Jeevan in title clash

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 18, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Prateek, Jeevan in title clash

By Our Sports Reporter

CHENNAI, SEPT. 17. Fourth-seeded Prateek Shantaraju will face top- seed Jeevan Nedunchezian in the boys' final of the TTT-ITF junior championship on Saturday.

In Friday's semifinal, Prateek came back from a break down in the final set to defeat qualifier Tariq Jacob 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 at the YMCA courts here. Prateek started out strongly, breaking Tariq in the second game of the match and then holding serve to take a 3-0 lead. Prateek broke Tariq's serve again in the eighth game to take the set at 6-2 in 35 minutes.

The second set was an unpredictable affair, with both players unable to hold serve in the first three games. Tariqlooked to have gained the upperhand until the sixth game. But 4-2 up, he lost his concentration, earned a code violation warning for ball abuse at 15-40, and was broken. He, however, promptly broke back in the next game and held to take the set at 6-4.

The momentum was now in his favour, and Tariq broke Prateek in the first game and both players held until 4-3, with Tariq to serve. The turning point of the match came when Prateek managed to break Tariq at 15; and from then on the match was always going to be Prateek's. Neither player served well today — less than 50 per cent of the first serves landed — but the fourth-seed managed to win the crucial ninth game. Now, serving to stay in the match at 4-5, Tariq promptly began with a double fault. A nice, looping lob earned Prateek his first matchpoint, which Tariq saved with a flat-out forehand; but the latter crashed a backhand into the net two points later to surrender the match. The three-set rollercoaster lasted two hours and 10 minutes.

The girls' final will be between top-seeded Sandhya Nagraj and Sandri Gangothri.

The results:

Boys (semifinals): Jeevan Nedunchezian bt Vijay Sunder Prashanth 6-3, 6-3; Prateek Shantaraju bt Tariq Jacob 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

Girls (semifinals): Sandhya Nagaraj bt Vandana Murali 6-2, 6-0; Sandri Gangothri bt V. Poojashree 6-3, 6-0.

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

Sport