BROOKING NO DEFENCE: Delhi men and women reigned supreme in the tennis team events. — PHOTO: RITU RAJ KONWAR

GUWAHATI: Delhi bagged a memorable double winning the men's and women's titles with identical 2-0 victory margins in the tennis finals of the 33rd National Games at the Chachal Complex here on Thursday. Delhi men blanked Tamil Nadu while Delhi women had little trouble in defeating West Bengal.

Divij Sharan did what was expected of him in the unfinished second rubber of the men's section.

The better player

The 21-year-old, however, had to dig deep to outlast a determined Kamala Kannan 6-3, 7-6(3) after the match was stopped on Wednesday due to incessant showers with Divij leading 2-1.

Divij dominated the exchanges from the baseline and at the net. He was more consistent and focussed, and mainly hung in there midway through the second set.

Kamala Kannan did come up with a better performance, after a patchy display in the first. Having displayed much pluck and shot-making skills in the second set, Kamala Kannan just couldn't raise the bar in the tie-breaker.

Easy for Vishika

In the women's final, Vishika Chhetri gave Delhi the lead with an easy 6-4, 6-2 win over Shivika Burman. Once she lost, the door was almost shut on Bengal. Parul Goswami had the measure of Ragini Vimal 6-4, 6-2 in the second match to clinch the tie for Delhi.

Arun Kumar and Nar Singh, the Delhi men's and women's team coaches were the most sought after people once the finals were over. Arun said the fact that he had three players who could play singles and doubles really well helped the team's cause.

"Even if the match is tied at 1-1, we had the confidence to win the doubles," said Arun. Hiten Joshi, Tamil Nadu coach, said he was satisfied with the silver, given the composition of the team. "Both the matches were close and our players had their chances. They will have to learn to convert them," said Joshi.

The one sore point of the tournament has been the quality of umpiring. The chair umpires and linesmen, mostly locals, are inexperienced and hardly able to communicate and take decisions on the spot for contentious line calls. Raktim Saikia, the Tournament Director, admitted that the umpires were indeed inexperienced. Saikia further said that in last November (when the ULFA threat was very much on) he had written a letter to the Bengal Tennis Association to release one chief referee and two qualified chair umpires for the Games. But it was to no avail.

Aditya pulls out

The second seed Aditya Madkekar of Maharashtra pulled out of the singles event due to a ligament tear in the right leg. He sustained the injury during the team semifinal match against Md. Fariz of Tamil Nadu. After posting a win in the pre-quarterfinals, Aditya decided not to further aggravate the injury, and has already left Guwahati for his hometown Mumbai.

The results: Team events: Men (final): Delhi bt Tamil Nadu 2-0 (Navdeep Singh bt V.M. Ranjeet 6-4, 7-5; Divij Sharan bt Kamala Kannan 6-3, 7-6(3).

Bronze (losing semifinalists): Maharshtra & West Bengal.

Women (final): Delhi bt West Bengal 2-0 (Vishika Chhetri bt Shivika Burman 6-4, 6-2; Parul Goswami bt Ragini Vimal 6-4, 6-2).

Bronze (losing semifinalists): Karnataka & Maharshtra.

Individual events: Singles (quarterfinals): Ashutosh Singh (Del) bt Kaushik Das (Asm) 6-1, 6-0; Manoj Sewa (WB) w/o Aditya Madkekar (Mah); Divij Sharan bt Mohammad Fariz (TN) 6-1, 6-2; Arjun Gautam (Mah) bt Vinay Kamineni (AP) 7-5, 6-4.

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