The Hindu : Sport : Sunil is champion

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 23, 2005

Sport

Sport

Sunil is champion

Kamesh Srinivasan

— Photo: R.V. Moorthy

WINNING SMILE: Sunil Kumar and Isha Lakhani had an easy time in the final of the National Championship.

NEW DELHI: They had won the national title before and they were tipped to win again. They were the top seeds and justified the billing in the DSCL National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday.

In a contest that deserved to be shown live by Doordarshan, but was not even recorded for posterity, Sunil Kumar beat fourth seed Ashutosh Singh 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in a lively exhibition that spanned two hours and 45 minutes.

The 20-year-old Isha was cruising at 6-1, 5-3 before she was checked on the final stretch by the eternal bride's maid, Sonal Phadke, but pulled through 9-7 in the second set tie-break, converting her fifth matchpoint with a smart overhead.

The gutsy left-hander, the last Indian to beat Sania Mirza, which she did in a $25,000 tournament in Mumbai in 2003, Isha had won a triple crown in 2002 and was happy to end up with a double crown this time, as she had also bagged the doubles title with Sonal.

Sonal missed a couple of setpoints while serving for the second set in the twelfth game and thus finished runner-up for the third time. She had lost to Sanaa Bhambri last year after having beaten Isha in the semifinals.

Arnav triumphs

The under-18 boys' title went to qualifier Arnav Jain who played an all-round game, as he outclassed third seed Kinshuk Sharma 6-2, 6-3.

The 16-year-old Arnav, a trainee of coach Enrico Piperno at the CCI in Mumbai, had won 45 of 50 games in five rounds of the qualifying event, and did not drop a set in winning six more rounds in the main draw.

The towering Poojashree Venkatesh who had won the under-14 title last year, clinched the girls' under-18 title as she beat the national junior champion G. K. Shweta in three sets.

The 15-year-old Mysore girl, except for losing the second set in a tie-break in the final, had not dropped a set in the whole tournament.

Sunil Kumar had won maximum attention in 1999 when he won the National title as a 16-year-old said, "no matter what I do in international competition, the best media coverage comes only in the National championship. I need support and am glad that I have won the national title again.''

Except for dropping serve in the second game of the third set after saving four breakpoints, that saw him lose the set, Sunil had total control with his fluent game.

Ashutosh had done well to make the final, but was not at his best, and failed to capitalise on the break-back in the second game of the second set.

Sunil's serves had sting, his passing shots proved too good and the 23-year-old Ashutosh was unable to attack the net as much as he would have liked.

The results (finals):

Men: Sunil Kumar bt Ashutosh Singh 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Doubles: Divij Sharan and Vivek Shokeen bt Kamala Kannan and Ashutosh Singh 6-4, 6-1.

Women: Isha Lakhani bt Sonal Phadke 6-1, 7-6(7).

Doubles: Isha Lakhani and Sonal Phadke bt Sheethal Goutham and Geeta Manohar 6-1, 6-2.

Boys: Arnav Jain bt Kinshuk Sharma 6-2, 6-3.

Doubles: Sumit Prakash Gupta and Saket Sai Myneni bt A. S. Suresh Krishna and P. C. Vignesh 3-6, 6-1, 6-0.

Girls: Poojashree Venkatesh bt G. K. Shweta 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-4.

Doubles: Parija Maloo and Shweta Kumari Solanki bt Sampada Kanade and Anushree Thamanna 6-2, 6-3.

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