The Hindu : Sport : Pala-Mertinak pair clinches title

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 09, 2006

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Sport

Pala-Mertinak pair clinches title

K. Keerthivasan

Indian pair fails to make the best of the opportunity

— Photo: R. Ragu

AWESOME TWOSOME: Michal Mertinak and Peter Pala combined well to win the Chennai Open doubles title.

CHENNAI: Rohan Bopanna and Prakash Amritraj must be cursing themselves for losing an excellent opportunity. In front of a packed SDAT-Nungambakkam Stadium on Sunday, the Indian pair threw away as many chances as one could possibly get in an ATP event and lost to the Czech-Slovak pair of Petr Pala and Michal Mertinak 6-2, 7-5 in the final of the Chennai Open doubles championship.

The Indians didn't capitalise on their strengths. Bopanna's serves misfired on numerous occasions and Prakash's returns and his softness of hands didn't come good when it mattered most. How else could one explain the meek surrender by the Indians in the second set after having led 5-0 at one point?

The way the Indian pair started indicated that all was well. A couple of Bopanna's overhead smashes and Prakash's sharpness at the net augured well. The lone break in the third game on Bopanna's serve set up the disintegration. Errors, many unforced, flowed from both. In 25 minutes flat, the Indians gifted the first set.

Regrouping wonderfully well, Bopanna-Prakash pair hit back in the second. The determination to make a match out of it was evident in the first game on Prakash's serve. Down 30-40, they combined well to win the game. The returns were of high quality as Mertinak's serve was broken at love in the second game. With the crowd them egging them on, the Indian pair broke Pala's serve at love to run up a 4-0 lead.

Crucial fault

The Indians blew a 5-0 cushion. Many expected "Bofors" Bopanna to serve out the match in style at 5-1 in the seventh game. Shockingly, he played a patchy game and worst of all, double-faulted and allowed the opponents to hit back. A French Open finalist in 2001 (with Pavel Vizner) and holder of four doubles titles, the 30-year-old Pala possesses sufficient experience to not let go off such chances. Bopanna double-faulted again on the 11th game at 5-6 to give Pala the freedom to serve out the match, which the veteran did with minimum fuss. The winner received $16,000 while the runner-up got $9300.

"Leading 5-0, I was already thinking of the match-tiebreaker. Today, I didn't return as well as I normally do," said Prakash. Bopanna said the crucial double fault by him in the 11th game did them in. "It's been a learning experience for us. We hope to stay on and play more tournaments," said Bopanna.

Playing together for the first time, the win turned out to be a memorable for Pala and Mertinak. "Perhaps, they were losing concentration after leading 5-0. But we didn't give them any free points," said Pala.

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