The Hindu : Sport : Shikha announces her arrival in style

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 21, 2005

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Sport

Shikha announces her arrival in style

Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI: The US-based Shikha Uberoi announced her arrival on to the Indian scene with a bang as she stormed away with the singles and doubles matches in double quick time against the hapless Singapore girls in the Fed Cup Asia-Oceania group `I' competition at the R.K. Khanna Stadium here on Wednesday.

Shikha spent only 39 minutes on court in blasting away Yun-Ling Cassandra Ng without dropping a game. The 135th ranked Shikha wound up the show in style by banging an ace down the middle, clenched her left fist and celebrated with a `come on' at the sparse crowd.

Tough act

It was a tough act to improve, but the 22-year-old Shikha did exactly that as she took one minute less in winning her doubles partnering the seasoned Rushmi Chakravarthi, dropping a mere two games in all. In fact, the Indian pair got off to such a terrific start that the duo won the first 16 points before the Singapore girls won their first.

It was not as if everything was in place for the Indian camp despite the resounding 3-0 triumph, as Ankita Bhambri looked rusty and sedate on her way to a 6-1, 7-5 triumph over Wei Ping Lee, who had a spectacular backhand that slithered down the line. Ankita led 5-2 in the second set but allowed the match to drift a bit before the erratic Singaporean put herself out with a string of double-faults.

Worried

Rather than celebrate Shikha's successful baptism, Indian captain Enrico Piperno would be more worried about Anikta's game. She was his trump card in the last edition with a 3-1 record in singles that was better than Sania Mirza's.

It would be unfair to single out Ankita for criticism on such a day, but it has to be conceded that the girl has not had many matches in recent weeks as she has been grappling with a foot injury after her board exams.

That may be one reason as to why Ankita was not able to continue with her big serves this day or be able to move swiftly.

It was here that Shikha, a supreme athlete totally focused on her job, showed a striking contrast. The captain, of course, has limited options with only three players to choose from after Sania was ruled out. India takes on Kazakhstan on Thursday.

The results: Group-I (Pool-A): India beat Singapore 3-0 (Ankita Bhambri bt Wei Ping Lee 6-1, 7-5; Shikha Uberoi bt Yun-Ling Cassandra Ng 6-0, 6-0; Shikha Uberoi and Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Yun-Ling Cassandra Ng and Shao Fang Ong 6-1, 6-1).

China beat Kazakhstan 3-0 (Jie Zheng bt Tatyana Ignatchenko 6-2, 6-2; Na Li bt Mariya Kovaleva 6-0, 6-1; Ting Li and Tian Tian Sun bt Mariya Kovaleva and Ekaterina Morozova 6-1, 6-2)

Pool-B: Australia beat New Zealand 3-0 (Evie Dominikovic bt Leanne Baker 6-2, 6-3; Samantha Stosur bt Marina Erakovic 6-4, 6-4; Evie Dominikovic and Bryanne Stewart bt Leanne Baker and Paula Marama 6-7(7), 6-1, 6-4).

Korea beat Chinese Taipei 3-0 (Ye-Ra Lee bt Ting-Wen Wang 6-2, 6-0; Jin-Hee Kim bt Yi Chen 6-2, 6-1; Kyung Mi Chang and Jin-A Le bt Yen-Hua Lu and Hsiao-Han Chao 6-4, 6-1).

Group-II: Philippines beat Turkmenistan 3-0 (Denise Dy bt Inna Gavrilenko 6-1, 6-0; Anja-Vanessa Peter bt Almira Halliyeva 6-1, 6-1; Czarina-Mae Arevalo and Denise Dy bt Almira Halliyeva and Ummarahmat Alisultanova 6-1, 6-0).

Uzbekistan beat Syria 3-0 (Dilyara Saidkhodjaeva bt Nivin Kezbari 6-0, 6-0; Akgul Amanmuradova bt Shaza Tinawi 6-0, 6-0; Akgul Amanmuradova and Dilyara Saidkhodjaeva bt Hazar Sidki and Nivin Kezbari 6-1, 6-2).

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