The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Maiden crown for Divij Sharan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 27, 2006

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Sport - Tennis

Maiden crown for Divij Sharan

Special Correspondent

REASON TO SMILE: Divij Sharan tamed Vijay Kannan in straight sets to claim his maiden title.

NEW DELHI: Local lad Divij Sharan put up a quality fare to beat the fourth-seeded Vijay Kannan 7-5, 6-3 in the final of the ITF Satellite tennis circuit third leg at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday.

On a windy afternoon, the 20-year-old left-hander played increasingly well to down his crafty opponent in a contest that spanned an hour and 51 minutes. It was Divij's maiden title at this level.

The key to the whole match was Divij's serve and quite appropriately he wound up the show with a string of good serves, which includes two of his eight aces.

The gutsy lad saved as many as six breakpoints in the first set to stay on course and did not face a breakpoint in the second set.

Vijay saved three setpoints in the tenth game of the first set, but Divij pushed his level up by a notch in the 12th game to break the 26-year-old former National champion decisively.

Impressive effort

Into the second set, Divij maintained the tempo and dropped only eight points in all on his serve. He eventually broke Vijay in the eighth game by smacking a backhand winner down the line.

The impressive effort not only fetched Divij $812.5 and 21 circuit points, but also a fourth seeding for the Masters to be played from Monday.

Despite his loss that saw him collect $562.5 and 15 circuit points, Vijay managed to be seeded third for the Masters.

The champions of the first two legs Aqeel Khan of Pakistan and Yuri Bezeruk of Australia will be seeded No. 1 and 2 respectively for the Masters, which will feature 24 players. The top eight will get a bye in the first round.

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