The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : ITF junior tournament from today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 31, 2005

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Sport - Tennis

ITF junior tournament from today

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 30. A clutch of Indian kids are earnestly pursuing the junior circuit to gain entry into the Grand Slams at Paris and Wimbledon. There is a new-found confidence in their approach, and quite significantly they have a strong foundation in terms of technique nicely backed by the hunger for success.

The Indian players had started the season in right earnest as Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Sandhya Nagaraj won the singles titles in the ITF junior tournament in Kolkata on Saturday. The effort will push the two up from their current ranking of No.85 and No.123 respectively.

The likes of Jeevan, a very talented left-hander who has been asserting his competence in the men's circuit as well along with Vivek Shokeen and Sanam Singh, will be the ones to watch out for this season, as they have something more than what we have seen in the Indian juniors in the recent past.

The Adidas ITF grade `II' junior tennis tournament starting here on Monday will offer more international points to help them move quite ahead in the rankings list, and gain direct entry into the French Open and Wimbledon. Only Punam Reddy could gain a direct entry in the Australian Open junior event, and she could not get past the first round in both singles and doubles.

The good thing about Jeevan and Sandhya is that both are only 16. With age on their side and belief in their heart, they can project a healthy image of Indian tennis in the international arena in the coming months.

Vivek Shokeen had lost in the semifinals in Kolkata, but the strapping young man is a champion in the making with his big game, and will be tough to beat at home.

With players from around the world trying to emphasise their class, it will be a week of interesting competition here, till the caravan moves to Chandigarh the following week for another similar tournament.

The seedings:

Boys: 1. Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, 2. Sanam Singh, 3. Vivek Shokeen, 4. Xiao-Peng Lai (Hkg), 5. Faisal Aidil (Ina), 6. Sumit Prakash Gupta, 7. Tejasvi Rao and 8. Vaja Uzakov (Uzb).

Girls: 1. Xeniya Palkina (Kgz), 2. Sandhya Nagaraj, 3. Madura Ranganathan, 4. Venise Chan (Hkg), 5. Amina Rakhim (Kaz), 6. Else Potgieter (RSA), 7. Dominice Ripoll (Ger) and 8. Dilyara Saidkhodjaeva (Uzb).

The results: Qualifying event (third and final round):

Boys: Akash Wagh bt Petr Dostal (Cze) 6-2, 6-3; Allan Gomes bt Wesley Baptist (RSA) 6-4, 6-1; Mohammed Fariz bt Krishna Karsolia 6-3, 6-3; Honey Rana bt Kanagraj Balakrishnan (Mas) 6-4, 6-0.

Girls: Mariya Malkhasyan (Ukr) bt Inayat Khosla 6-1, 6-1; Denise Dy (Phi) bt Zena Williams (U.S.) 6-2, 6-4; Justina Derungs (Sui) bt Irina Khatsko (Ukr) 6-1, 6-3; Akshita Raj bt Varsha Shivshankar 6-3, 6-2.

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