The Hindu : Sport : Melinda Czink too good for Rushmi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 14, 2006

Sport

Sport

Melinda Czink too good for Rushmi

Nandita Sridhar

PERFECT START: Alona Bondarenko served up a straight-sets win against her sibling Kateryana on Monday. - PHOTO: K. BHAGYA PRAKASH

Bangalore: It was never expected to be one of those never-entirely-on-the-seat, hands blushing and eyeball wearying encounters, but Melinda Czink made sure that even the slightest trace of a possible thriller (which was hardly there) was promptly hit out, with a thoroughly clinical 6-1, 6-2 demolition of whatever little that India's Rushmi Chakravarthi had to offer, in the first round of the Bangalore Open, at the KSLTA Signature Kingfisher Stadium.

Playing a left-hander is never easy, specially when you and your game don't see eye to eye. "Her serves were angling in well since she is a left-hander," said Rushmi after the match. In complete contrast, Rushmi's serves went through a loss of direction and purpose, perfectly content just paying a visit to the other side of the net. She looked rusty and occasionally annoyed at her lack of dexterity. Her returns were never forceful and sometimes mere touches.

Everything right

Czink, on her part rarely put in a shot wrong. She sliced in a few perfectly-angled serves which Rushmi's racquet could sometimes just gape at, tested the elasticity of her opponent's bones to the hilt and even lent a hand in adding on to Rushmi's pile of errors.

Devouring the first four games in both sets meant they were hers for the taking and all that

Rushmi could do, was to pick up the few crumbs that Czink's racquet occasionally threw at her.

It was an almost emotionally barren encounter, except for that slight show of irritation by Czink when the flashbulbs were shuffling around in pursuit of Sania Mirza and Vijay Amritraj in the stands.

Eventually, it took just 52 minutes for the Hungarian to expose her opponent's total lack of match practice. "This was my first match of the season, and I didn't get in too much of practice earlier because of an injury (right finger) that I had sustained in Delhi. I didn't serve too well, and my game just didn't come together," said Rushmi.

Sania, Vijay enthral crowd

It is not every day that Sania Mirza and Vijay Amritraj are on either side of the net. After the

voice of Indian tennis declared the tournament open, the duo engaged in a one-on-one, with the racquet. Sania sneaking in a little drop shot and Vijay requesting her to keep him unmoved, made sure the encounter was brief, but entertaining.

First upset

Fifth seed Japanese Aiko Nakamura suffered a sudden swing in fortunes after leading 6-0, and ended up losing to Ukraine's Mariya Koryttseva 6-0, 3-6, 3-6 in the first round.

With a double-handed style a la Monica Seles, Nakamura powered her way into a first set win, but ran out of steam, shots and everything else in the next two, and went on to become the first upset of the Bangalore Open. Elena Vesnina was the other seeded casualty of the day, losing to veteran Nicole Pratt 3-6, 4-6.

Rushmi-Ankita crash out

Rushmi Chakravarthi's woes continued as she lost in the doubles first round, partnering Ankita Bhambri to Martina Muller and Silvija Talaja 2-6, 2-6.

Other results:

Singles (first round): Alona Bondarenko bt Kateryna Bondarenko 6-4, 7-5; Camille Pin bt Angelique Widjaja 6-4, 6-0.

Doubles (first round): Ivana Abramovic/Marija Abramovic bt Ryoko Fuda/Seiko Okamoto 6-3, 6-2; Melinda Czink/Vania King bt Katarina Kachlikova/Antonia Matic 6-4, 6-2.

Qualifying (final round): Daniela Kix bt Akgul Amanmuradova 3-6, 6-4, 6-4; Tatiana Poutchek bt Shiho Hisamatsu 6-4, 6-4; Alla Kudryavtseva bt Aleksandra Wozniak 6-3, 7-6 (6); Katarina Kachlikova bt Napaporn Tongsalee 7-5, 6-3.

UNI reports from New Delhi:

After her second-round exit from the WTA tournament in Paris, Sania Mirza dropped six places to 38th in the latest WTA rankings.

However, the Indian ace continues to rank above Serena Williams, who is at the 44th spot.

Sania now has 522.75 ranking points and the 19-year-old will be playing in the Bangalore Open from Monday.

The top 10 names in the list remain unchanged with Belgian Kim Clijsters continuing to lead the pack. She has 3478 ranking points and is followed by Australian Open champion Amelie Mauresmo (3435).

American Lindsay Davenport and Russian Maria Sharapova are third and fourth with 2803 and 2615 points respectively.

Meanwhile, the other Indians in the list continue to be in lowly positions with very little upward movement.

The U.S.-based Shikha Uberoi has come down two places to 162 with 171.75 ranking points. Ankita Bhambri (52.25) has improved from last week's 361st position to be at 358. Sister Sanaa (31.25), however, has dropped eight places to finish at 465th place.

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