The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Vinod Sridhar in semifinals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 17, 2005

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Sport - Tennis

Vinod Sridhar in semifinals

Kamesh Srinivasan

GURGAON: Vinod Sridhar asserted himself with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 triumph over the third-seeded Prima Simpatiaji of Indonesia in the quarterfinals of the ITF Satellite tennis circuit third leg at the NTA Complex here on Wednesday.

Joining Vinod in the semifinals were the champion of the first leg, the top-seeded Rohan Bopanna who humbled Kamala Kannan; the crafty left-hander Nitin Kirtane who made light of his 31 years in slugging it out in a third set tie-break against Nima Roshan; and the champion of the second leg, the second-seeded Peter Clarke of Ireland.

Overcoming a slump in his game midway through the second set when he was also hampered by a knee injury that needed medical attention,Vinod played a solid game from the backcourt in ousting the Indonesian Davis Cupper Simpatiaji. The later himself was troubled by a back strain and was thus unable to be at his best in the climax.

In the semifinals, Vinod will be challenging Peter Clarke who struggled past the strapping young man from Hyderabad, J. Vishnu Vardhan. In a battle that lasted more than two hours, Clarke fired 14 aces and pulled ahead at 4-4 in the tie break.

The former national champion Nitin Kirtane emphasised his indomitable spirit once again as he played hard to neutralised the power game of Nima Roshan of the US who was unable to serve out the match after having broken Nitin in the ninth game of the decider. Nitin missed three matchpoints at 6-2 in the tie-break but was immensely relieved to be home on the fourth.

Nitin will challenge the top-seeded Rohan Bopanna who has shown considerable maturity in handling the different games of his opponents. Bopanna saw off the big-stroking Kamala Kannan and in fact enjoyed the power-hitting session as he served and stroked with punch to cruise into his third successive semifinal.

The results:

Singles (quarterfinals): Rohan Bopanna bt Kamala Kannan 6-3, 6-2; Nitin Kirtane bt Nima Roshan (US) 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (5); Vinod Sridhar bt Prima Simpatiaji (Ina) 6-4, 4-6, 6-2; Peter Clarke (Irl) bt J. Vishnu Vardhan 6-4, 7-6 (4).

Doubles (semifinals): Rohan Bopanna and Vijay Kannan bt Hayato Furukawa and Tetsuhiro Yamamoto (Jpn) 6-3, 6-4; Jaco Mathew and Ashutosh Singh bt Yew Ming Si (Mas) and Prima Simpatiaji (Ina) 7-5, 7-6 (7).

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