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Saturday, Jan 13, 2007
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Poojashree in final

Special Correspondent

To take on last week's champion Aleksandra Kolesnichenko

NEW DELHI: Poojashree Venkatesh tamed Yulia Goloborodko of Ukraine 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 to move into the girls' final of the ITF grade `II' junior tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Friday.

The 16-year-old Poojashree is the sole Indian to make the finals and will meet last week's champion Aleksandra Kolesnichenko of Uzbekistan.

Confident display

Having won back-to-back ITF titles, at Mumbai and Gurgaon last month, dropping a mere 20 games in all in 10 matches, Poojashree had the confidence to come good against the tough Ukrainian. She had made the semifinals last week in Chandigarh and prevailed over Yulia whom she had beaten before.

The lanky girl from Bangalore was pretty accurate and hit her patented backhand down the line winners to exasperate Yulia. Poojashree maintained her control over the proceedings till 4-3 in the second set, when her opponent played an inspired spell to level the sets.

However, Poojashree was undeterred and raced to a 5-1 lead in the decider, sticking to her gameplan, before her opponent broke her serve to delay the defeat, by saving a match point in the seventh game. Yulia was unable to match the defensive tactics of Poojashree and bowed out in the next game.

In the other semifinal, Shivika Burman got off to a splendid start against Aleksandra, but let her back into the match.

Creditable effort

Yet, it was a creditable effort by the gutsy Shivika who had won titles in Ethiopia and Kenya last month, as she played an attacking game throughout.

In the boys' event, the 15-year-old Venkat Iyer found Jerzy Janowicz of Poland too hot to handle in the semifinals. Venkat was unable to return the big serves of the strongly built Polish lad in the first set, and was unable to ride on an improved performance in the second.

The results: Semifinals: Boys: Singles: Kittiphong Wachiramanowong (Tha) bt Rifat Biktyakov (Uzb) 6-3, 6-3; Jerzy Janowicz (Pol) bt Venkat Iyer 6-2, 6-2.

Doubles: Alexey Tikhonov (Rus)/ Rifat Biktyakov (Uzb) bt Khunpol Issara/ Kittiphong Wachiranamowong (Tha) 7-6(3), 6-3; Jeong-Han Seo/ Jae Beom Kim (Kor) bt Ashwin Vijayaraghavan/ Vikram Reddy 6-3, 7-6(5).

Girls: Singles: Poojashree Venkatesh bt Yulia Goloborodko (Ukr) 6-2, 4-6, 6-2; Aleksandra Kolesnichenko (Uzb) bt Shivika Burman 1-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Doubles: Yulia Goloborodko/ Anastasiya Vasylyeva (Ukr) bt Jessy Rompies (Ina)/ Nadia Lalami (Mor) 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(5); Khunpak Issara/ Sophia Mulsap (Tha) bt Nanuli Pipiya (Rus)/ Aleksandra Kolesnichenko (Uzb) 0-6, 6-1, 6-3.

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