The Hindu : Sport : Amritraj falters against Heuberger

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 04, 2005

Sport

Sport

Amritraj falters against Heuberger

By Vijay Parthasarathy

India's Harsh Mankad launches into a return against Jamie Delgado of Great Britain at the Chennai Open on Monday. - Photo: R. Ragu.

CHENNAI, JAN. 3. At the moment in Swiss tennis, you have Roger Federer and after that, Ivo Heuberger - only, the gap between the world number one and Heuberger is so wide that you might consider throwing in a few milch cows for good measure. Even so, at 124, Heuberger is still ranked way above India's best player, Prakash Amritraj; and although the 20 year-old Indian did try and make a match of it, he faltered at crucial moments to lose the first round match 6-4, 6-4 here at the Chennai Open on Monday.

Amritraj started strongly, pounding forehand winners on his service; but his opponent's serve proved equally strong and Amritraj was unable to make any serious headway. Amritraj's game, however, subsequently became a little erratic. Heuberger broke Amritraj's serve with a forehand winner to take a 5-3 lead and served the first set out, finishing with an ace.

Amritraj began uncertainly in the second set, and struggled to hold serve in the first game. But as the set progressed, he began to push forward more confidently, and his serve and volley game at this point was pure geometry, what with all the angles at the net.

But, as was the case in the first set, Heuberger again managed to break his opponent in the seventh game, this time at 15. Five-three down, Amritraj saved a match point and won the game as Heuberger attempted a down-the-line pass in a wide-open court. That didn't cause the Swiss any trouble though; a couple of aces set up three match points for Heuberger, and an Amritraj return promptly sailed long.

Heuberger might have committed nine double faults to his opponent's three; but he also had 11 aces. Amritraj managed only three.

Earlier, Vinod Sridhar lost his second round qualifying match to Marcos Baghdatis in straight sets 6-3, 6-4. That was a depressingly one-sided affair; and just when it seemed setting up a wildcard charity fund is the only practical solution to India's tennis woes, Harsh Mankad managed to pull off a come-from-behind 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Jamie Delgado of Great Britain.

Mankad qualifies

Mankad is only the second Indian (after Sandeep Kirtane in 1996), to qualify for the main draw; and will now play the eighth seed, Kevin Kim, of the United States for a place in the second round.

The Indian played well against an opponent, who was ranked 121 in the world in the not-too-distant past. Mankad made it to a career-high 282 in August; but his ranking has since plummeted, to 360. Hand-eye co-ordination, you would think, is in his genes; his grandfather, after all, is the legendary Indian cricketer, Vinoo Mankad.

Delgado's crisp backhands troubled Mankad for the greater part of the first set, and the Indian quickly found himself one set down; things got worse, when Delgado broke him in his first service game. But almost impossibly, the Indian began to counter-attack beautifully and broke back to make it 2-2, then carried on the momentum to win the next game at love. Delgado was broken again at 15, and he lost the set 6-3.

Mankad continued to employ his reliable double-fisted backhand to good effect, and finished several points with stylish volleys. The Indian had three aces in the final set (as opposed to none for the Englishman), and finally won in just under two hours.

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

Sport