The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Aqeel Khan is the man to beat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 04, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Aqeel Khan is the man to beat

By Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI, OCT. 3. He has had tremendous success in India, in international competitions so far. The interesting question this week would be whether the top-seeded Aqeel Khan of Pakistan lives up to the billing and clinches the crown in the DSCL National tennis championship being played at the DLTA Complex here from Monday.

Having collected 80 ATP points from two Satellite circuit and two Futures tournaments, the 24-year-old Aqeel is a confident man these days, hitting his double-fisted forehand with authority and serving big. That confidence was very much evident in the manner Aqeel won the fifth rubber in a five-set thriller against New Zealand in the Davis Cup tie recently.

Up to the juniors

With most of the top Indian players busy with international competition around the world, it is left to the Indian juniors to project a positive image of the future of the game in the country.

It will be interesting to keep track of Karan Rastogi, who had made it to the singles semifinals of the boys' event at the Australian Open this season. Divij Sharan had made it to three finals in the last edition, and will be keen to improve on that record. Tushar Liberhan, Sanam Singh and Vivek Shokeen will be some of the other juniors trying to capitalise on a light draw.

It will be a good chance for the seeded players like Vinod Sridhar, Kamala Kannan, Pathanjali Ravishankar, Ajay Ramaswami and Ashutosh Singh, not to forget wild card entrant Nitin Kirtane, to gun for the Rs. 100,000 winner's purse.

In the women's section, Isha Lakhani, Sanaa Bhambri, Sonal Phadke and Archana Venkataraman will be the fore-runners for the title, and the prize purse of Rs. 80,000. Radhika Tulpule has made a wild card entry, and may cause a stir, though she has not been playing competitive that much these days.

With the junior event being held concurrently, there will not be any dearth of `lively' action this week.

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