The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Delhi, Tamil Nadu enter last four

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 13, 2007
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Sport - Tennis

Delhi, Tamil Nadu enter last four

K. Keerthivasan

GUWAHATI: Divij Sharan, by all available evidence, is playing his best in singles. Ashutosh Singh, one of the better players in doubles, looks sharp. If you go by the rankings here, defending champion Delhi has more number of players in the top 15 — three. Given the much-depleted field, it is a formula that is hard to match or beat, not impossible though.

The tennis competition of the 33rd National Games that commenced at the newly built Chachal Complex here on Monday witnessed Delhi beginning its campaign in style, romping past Chandigarh 2-1 in the quarterfinals. Delhi next takes on West Bengal.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu packed off Punjab 2-0 to set up a last four clash with Maharashtra.

Delhi suffered a reverse, a surprise one at that, when Ashutosh lost to Vijayant Malik in the first singles. The 17-year-old kept his nerves under check to pull off a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 win.

Vijayant struggled to close out the match in the 10th game. Serving at 5-4 in the decider, he required five match points before finally finishing it off with a forehand winner down the line. Divij, ranked No.5 in India, then neutralised the lead by drubbing Tarun Sharma 6-0, 6-0. Then, the Divij-Ashutosh duo wasted no time in knocking off Tushar Sharma and Vijayant 6-4, 6-1.

No sweat

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu did not have to sweat much against Punjab. V.M. Ranjeet trounced Navinder Pal Singh, playing his first match in men's singles, 6-2, 6-0, while Kamala Kannan eased past Hazary Javed Akbar 6-3, 6-1.

Tamil Nadu's next match against Maharashtra comprising Arjun Gautam, India No.6 Aditya Madkekar and Nitin Kirtane (he may play doubles if needed) will be an interesting affair.

The results:

Quarterfinals: Men: TN bt Punjab 2-0 (V.M. Ranjeet bt Navinder Pal Singh 6-2, 6-0; Kamala Kannan bt Hazary Javed Akbar 6-3, 6-1); West Bengal bt Assam 2-1 (Vinod Sewa lost to C.S. Mohanty 0-6, 6-2, 6-3; Manoj Sewa bt Anshuman Dutta 6-4, 6-3; Vinod Sewa/ Manoj Sewa bt Ranjit Dutta/ C.S. Mohanty 6-4, 6-2); Delhi bt Chandigarh 2-1 (Ashutosh Singh lost to Vijayant Malik 6-3, 5-7, 6-4; Divij Sharan bt Tushar Sharma 6-0, 6-0; Ashutosh Singh/ Divij Sharan bt Tushar Sharma/ Vijayant Malik 6-4, 6-1; Maharashtra bt AP 2-0 (Arjun Gautam bt Vivek Reddy 6-0, 6-0; Aditya Madkekar bt Vinay Kamineni 6-1, 6-1).

Women: West Bengal bt Assam 2-0 (Shivika Burman bt Kasturi Verma 6-0, 6-0; Ragini Vimal bt Pamir Gogoi 6-0, 6-1; Karnataka bt AP 2-0 (Archana Venkataraman bt T. Nilaya; Poojashree Venkatesh bt P. Megha 6-2, 6-1).

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