The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Madkekar enters last four

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 11, 2006

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Madkekar enters last four

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Aditya Madkekar sustained his good work to get past eighth-seeded Vishnu Vardhan in the quarterfinals of the ITF Satellite tennis circuit first leg at the DLTA Complex here on Thursday.

In a tough contest, Vishnu lacked the strength in his legs, if not the stomach for a fight, to match the will of his opponent in energy sapping conditions, and retired at 7-5, 3-6, 1-2.

Having beaten him in straight sets in the Futures at Dehra Dun in May, Madkekar had the psychological edge. Yet, the Mumbaikar showed signs of nerves as much as a spell of indecisive play when he failed to serve out the first set after having taken a 5-3 lead with a break in the eighth game.

What clinched the issue for Madkekar was Vishnu's inability to serve well in the sixth game of the second set when he got broken decisively, much in contrast to the fourth game in which he had shown his serve prowess by sewing it up with three aces.

It will be interesting to see how well Madkekar tackles the seasoned Aqeel Khan of Pakistan, who beat Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, in the semifinals.

The results: Singles (quarterfinals): Aditya Madkekar bt Vishnu Vardhan 5-7, 6-3, 2-1 (retired); Aqeel Khan bt Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 6-4, 6-4; Yuri Bezeruk (Aus) bt Tai-Wei Liu (Tpe) 6-3, 1-6, 6-4; Vijay Kannan bt Punna Vishal 6-2, 6-0. Doubles (semifnals): Divij Sharan and Navdeep Singh bt Sandeep Kirtane and Purav Raja 4-6, 6-4, 6-4; Mustafa Ghouse and Pathanjali Ravishankar bt Jaco Mathew and Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-4, 7-6(3).

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