The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Vivek makes semifinals

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Friday, Oct 07, 2005

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Sport - Athletics

Vivek makes semifinals

Kamesh Srinivasan

No sweat for Alexey Kedriouk The real test for Vivek will be in the semifinals when he takes on the temperamental Alexey Kedriouk

GURGAON: Vivek Shokeen rode on his big game in defeating the sixth-seeded Divij Sharan in a three-hour thriller 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 for a berth in the semifinals of the Oil India Satellite tennis circuit third leg at the NTA Complex here on Thursday.

Being guilty of more than a trace of overconfidence, especially after having beaten the left-hander for the loss of four games last week, the 18-year-old Vivek tried to blast his way through yet again. However, Divij fought with grit in a nerve-wracking contest in which a broken string eventually took the sting away from his challenge in the climax.

It was a stroke of raw courage and keen anticipation when Divij converted the third setpoint on Vivek's serve in the tenth game of the second set with a lunging passingshot, a remarkable counter to an overheader.

Into the decider, Divij took a 4-2 lead but Vivek broke back to level scores. Divij saved a breakpoint in the ninth game, but got broken in the eleventh as he struggled to get the same feel on the new racquet after having broken the strings in the tenth game.

Divij managed to win a mere three points in the last three games after changing racquet while Vivek was relieved to serve out the contest without much fuss.

The real test for Vivek will be in the semifinals when he takes on the temperamental Alexey Kedriouk, who had beaten him in the quarterfinals of the second leg on way to the title. The Kazakh was stretched in a baseline battle by Pathanjali Ravishankar, but hit his way past trouble though he was busy all through the match, contesting the calls of the umpire and throwing racquets and tantrums.

Class act

Vishaal Uppal was a class act as he played `smart' in dismissing the challenge from the second-seeded Karan Ratogi, the champion of the first leg. Karan lacked the tact to counter the slow sliced returns of Vishaal and did not have the patience to make a match of it. On his part, Vishaal served quite smooth and stroked with diligence in making it a straightforward affair.

Vishaal will meet the finalist of the second leg, Sunil Kumar who countered the compact game of Arjun Goutham with increasing efficiency.

In the doubles semifinals, the champions of the first two legs, the top-seeded Mustafa Ghouse and Vishaal Uppal were beaten in three sets by the third-seeded Pathanjali Ravishankar and Vinod Sridhar, while the finalists of the first two legs, Alexey Kedriouk and Vijay Kannan made the final for the third time with ease.

The results:

Singles (quarterfinals): Alexey Kedriouk (Kaz) bt Pathanjali Ravishankar 6-2, 6-4; Vivek Shokeen bt Divij Sharan 6-4, 4-6, 7-5; Sunil Kumar bt Arjun Goutham 6-4, 6-0; Vishaal Uppal bt Karan Rastogi 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles (semifinals): Pathanjali Ravishankar and Vinod Sridhar bt Mustafa Ghouse and Vishaal Uppal 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-1; Alexey Kedriouk (Kaz) and Vijay Kannan bt Jaco Mathew and Ashutosh Singh 6-2, 6-3.

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