The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Rastogi and Mankad enter semifinals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 25, 2005

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Rastogi and Mankad enter semifinals

By K. Keerthivasan

CHENNAI, MARCH 24. As the sun peaked at noon on Thursday, so did Karan Rastogi's game against Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the quarterfinals of the Madras Gymkhana Club-ITF men's $15,000 Futures tennis tournament at the club courts.

Playing so many rallies as to give the spectators a sprain in their necks, Rastogi grilled the Uzbek from the baseline, scripting numerous outstanding winners from the backcourt.

The 18-year-old wild card entrant looked fresh and was eager for one more set after completing a gruelling 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win in two hours and four minutes.

Rastogi will play Kamil Capkovic of Slovakia in the semifinals while Harsh Mankad will meet Britain's Jamie Delgado.

Bopanna goes down fighting

The 26-year-old Bopanna didn't play as if he has been out of the circuit for a long time. The faster courts here have been to his liking.

Against Capkovic, Bopanna looked every bit his old self, winning the first set 6-0. But the Slovak came back strongly in the next two tiring the Indian from the baseline to win 0-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) in 127 minutes.

For Mankad, his target is nothing but the next contest. In the three matches he has played here, Mankad has been consistence personified. Percentage play, as one would say. Lucky loser Wang-Cheng Hsieh of Taipei began to lose interest midway during the first set (perhaps he got upset with a line call), but Harsh remained focussed on his job to post a comfortable 6-2, 6-0 victory over the Hsieh, who replaced the top seed Aisam Qureshi.

Aggressive Rastogi

In the decider, Rastogi decided that the best way to beat the 6'4" Istomin was to chuck the `allow the opponent to commit mistakes' strategy.

Continuing to hit deep shots from the backcourt, Rastogi broke Istomin with a fine lob to go ahead 3-1 only to see the Uzbek equalise 3-each. Hard, nail-biting rallies ensured that the spectators remained glued to their seats.

The 18-year-old Indian, the smaller of the two, made it even more engrossing with his aggressive play. After he broke Istomin's serve in the ninth game, Rastogi held his serve with ease to close out the match.

Bopanna-Kannan in final

Rohan Bopanna and Vijay Kannan entered the doubles final with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Vishal Uppal and Ajay Ramaswami. The Indian pair will meet Croatian-Austrian pair of Ivan Cerovic and Konstantin Gruber.

The results (Indians unless otherwise mentioned): Singles (quarterfinals): Karan Rastogi bt Denis Istomin (Uzb) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; Kamil Capkovic (Svk) bt Rohan Bopanna 0-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2); Jamie Delgado (G.Br) bt Aqeel Khan (Pak) 6-3, 6-1; Harsh Mankad bt Wang-Cheng Hsieh (Tpe) 6-2, 6-0.

Doubles (semifinals): Rohan Bopanna & Vijay Kannan bt Vishal Uppal & Ajay Ramaswamy 6-3, 6-4; Ivan Cerovic (Cro) & Konstantin Gruber (Aut) bt Karan Rastogi & Ashutosh Singh 6-1, 6-2.

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