The Hindu : Sport : A tale of missed opportunities

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Wednesday, Sep 27, 2006
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A tale of missed opportunities

Kamesh Srinivasan

Moodie's strong serving titled the balancek in his favour against Bopanna

WELL PLAYED, MATE: Rohan Bopanna lost but did not embarrass himself against Wesley Moodie, ranked about 200 places above him. — PHOTO: VIVEK BENDRE

MUMBAI: Rohan Bopanna made a fine start, but could not hold on to his chances as he went down 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 to the eighth seed Wesley Moodie of South Africa in the first round of the $380,000 Kingfisher Airlines tennis open at the CCI courts here on Tuesday.

It was the superb serving skills of the 73rd-ranked South African that bailed him out of trouble against the strapping Indian lad ranked about 200 places below him.

Moodie fired 18 aces — and four of them in the second set tie-break — that tilted the balance in his favour. In the third set, Bopanna was tentative in the first game and a break there proved decisive.

After a shaky effort in his first two services games, Bopanna was on song as he broke Moodie in the fourth and sixth games, though he himself got broken in the fifth. He showed his maturity by rallying patiently in clinching the set in the ninth game.

Into the second set, Bopanna allowed Moodie to save three breakpoints in the third game and one in the fifth, and that proved his undoing.

He did save three setpoints from 0-40 in the tenth game, and saved two more setpoints in the tie-break, but the South African was well and truly back in the match, and in the driver's seat.

"I didn't convert a few breakpoints, and he served big in the tie-break. I should have capitalised on my chances in that second set. Once he got into his groove, it was tough to catch up with him'', said Bopanna who himself fired as many as 16 aces, and had only a solitary double-fault. "He played very well, and I didn't play that good till halfway through the second set. He served very well too," said Moodie.

Of course, Bopanna can take heart from the fact that he in partnership with Mustafa Ghouse had knocked-out the top seeds Alexander Peya and Bjorn Phau 6-3, 6-4 in the pre-quarterfinals.

In the opening match of the evening, Mahesh Bhupathi and Mario Ancic toyed with the under-16 kids, Akash Wagh and Christopher Marquis while racing to a 6-0, 6-1 victory in 40 minutes.

"The idea of giving them an opportunity was to help them figure out the pace. In three years time, they will compete against Mario," said Bhupathi.

Bhupathi and Ancic are likely to meet the Indo-Pak combination of Leander Paes and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi in the quarterfinals.

The results: Singles: First round: Wesley Moodie (RSA) bt Rohan Bopanna 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4. Ramon Delgado (Par) bt Davide Sanguinetti (Ita) 6-3, 2-1 (retired); Kristian Pless (Den) bt Denis Gremelmayr (Ger) 7-5, 7-5; Simon Greul (Ger) bt Yen-Hsun Lu (Tpe) 7-6(4), 6-3; Stefan Koubek (Aut) bt Juan Monaco (Arg) 7-6(5), 6-4.

Doubles: Rik de Voest (RSA) & Igor Kunitsyn (Rus) bt Karan Rastogi & Sanam Singh 6-3, 6-3; Mario Ancic (Cro) & Mahesh Bhupathi bt Christopher Marquis & Akash Wagh 6-0, 6-1.

Wednesday's matches: Centre court: Lukasz Kubot (Pol) v Tomas Berdych (Cze) 5 p.m.; Tommy Robredo (Esp) v Alexander Peya (Aut); Leander Paes & Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (Pak) v Ramon Delgado (Par) & Konstantinos Economidis (Gre). Court No.1: Dmitry Tursunov (Rus) v Akash Wagh (4 p.m.); Nicolas Devilder (Fra) v Rik De Voest (RSA); Rohan Bopanna & Mustafa Ghouse v Rik De Voest (RSA) & Igor Kunitsyn (Rus). Court No.2: James Auckland & Jamie Delgado (GBR) v Stefano Galvani & Davide Sanguinetti (Ita) 4 p.m.; Denis Gremelmayr & Simon Greul (Ger) v Jasper Smit & Martijn van Haasteren (Ned) or Lukasz Kubot (Pol) & Robin Vik (Cze).

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