The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Sweet revenge for Daniel Raj

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Saturday, Aug 05, 2006

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Sport - Tennis

Sweet revenge for Daniel Raj

Special Correspondent

KAVALI : It was sweet revenge for Daniel Raj and double delight for V. Archana, both of Hyderabad and A.P. in the boys' and girls' finals respectively of the Visvodaya Institute of Technology and Science (VITS)-AITA super series tennis championships for under-16 that ended at the engineering college campus here on Friday.

Raj, who had lost to Kaza Vinayak Sarma at Kolkata, subdued the latter 6-3, 6-2. Archana defeated T. Nilaya 6-2, 6-4 and partnered Tanvi R. Shah to beat Deepna Vazirani and Ankita Raina 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-1 in the doubles.

If the serve is a sign of things to come, Vinayak's chest and head-high offering didn't fulfil its potential, which Daniel exploited, effecting an early break, in the second game of the opening set itself.

Against the Vizag native's offensive baseline game, Daniel adopted an all-round approach. In his anxiety to attack, Vinayak seemed to take the ball too early on the rise, sending his returns either wayward or long on many occasions. If his top-spun drives fetched him points, so did they cost him many too. Against the tall youngster's mounting errors, Daniel pumped up the pace, the latter's rising confidence evident from the wider margin of wins when serving.

Dominant

There was little doubt of Archana's dominance in the girls' final as she largely controlled the exchanges against Nilaya. The variety of line and angle in her returns had Nilaya on the run most of the time.

Nilaya showed resistance early in the second set but couldn't quite sustain the pace that her taller rival set. For most of the contest, she was on the back foot, pushed behind the baseline time and again. Even to hold on to her serve seemed an uphill task, as she dropped it in the first, third and seventh games of the first set and in the fifth, seventh and ninth in the decider.

Dr. C. Rajasekhar Reddy, chief orthopaedic surgeon, Vijaya Health Centre, Chennai, who was the chief guest, gave away the prizes, while Wing Commander (retd) I.P.C. Reddy, presided over the valedictory function.

The results:

Boys: Singles: Daniel Raj (AP) bt Kaza Vinayak Sarma (AP) 6-3, 6-3. Doubles: Vaidik Munshaw/Sumit Mehta bt Man Singh Athare/Bibaswan Deb 1-0 (conceded).

Girls: V. Archana (AP) bt T. Nilaya (AP) 6-2, 6-4. Doubles: V. Archana/Tanvi R. Shah bt Deepna

Vazirani/Ankita Raina 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-1.

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