The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Sanam works his way past Vijayant

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Tuesday, May 29, 2007
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Sanam works his way past Vijayant

Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH: Sanam Singh returned to the professional circuit with a vibrant game after having spent the past four months studying, as he efficiently worked his way past wild card entrant Vijayant Malik 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the SAIL $10,000 ITF men's Futures tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex here on Monday.

Matched by the 17-year-old local lad, Sanam raised his game at the crunch after losing the first set in the tiebreak. The fighter in the 19-year-old Sanam was to the fore in the 12th game of the first set when the former CLTA trainee saved seven setpoints, and swallowed the disappointment of a few poor line calls that went against him, to force the tiebreak.

After capturing the first set in just over an hour, Vijayant did well to sustain the momentum as he broke Sanam in the first game of the second set as well. Thereafter, Sanam was a different player as he attacked with clinical precision, hitting the groundstrokes with punch and moving in for timely volleys that exasperated the inexperienced Vijayant who lacked the will to stretch the fight any further.

Meek surrender

The relative meek surrender in the second part of the match, when he won four of 16 games was understandable, as it was only the first main draw match in the men's professional circuit for Vijayant. He had competed in only three earlier tournaments and had lost in the first round of the qualifying event in all the three.

Vijayant had not played tournaments even at the junior level for more than four months, after a successful ITF circuit by January this season, when he had won a title from three successive finals.

In another lively encounter, it was the crafty Vijay Kannan who had the last laugh, as he overcame a sluggish start to pin down Sriram Balaji in three sets. After losing the first seven games, Kannan revealed his competitive streak as he turned the match around with a break in the seventh game of the second set.

Balaji did break back in the next game, but the first signs of vulnerability were very much evident then. It was no surprise that the former national champion trapped the talented 17-year-old slowly into his web, cutting the escape routes with a deft touch.

The results: Singles (first round): Sanam Singh bt Vijayant Malik 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2; Navdeep Singh bt Kinshuk Sharma 6-2, 6-1; Vijay Kannan bt Sriram Balaji 0-6, 7-6(4), 6-4; Tushar Liberhan bt Kiran Nandakumar 6-2, 6-3; Vinod Sridhar bt Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Kiran Nandakumar and Yannick Nelord bt Nitten Kirrtane and Shivang Mishra 1-6, 6-3, 6-2; Vivek Shokeen and Sanam Singh bt Tsung-Hua Yang (Tpe) and Sumit Prakash Gupta 3-6, 6-2, 6-2; Robert Searle and Matthew Smith (GBR) bt Sandeep Choudhary and Fariz Mohammed 6-3, 6-2; Tushar Liberhan and Navdeep Singh bt Kamala Kannan and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 6-3, 6-2; Guilherme Ochiai (Bra) and Satoshi Yosino (Jpn) bt Vijay Kannan and Vinod Sridhar 2-6, 6-1, 6-4; Jonathan Kinsella (GBR) and Rohan Gajjarbt Punna Vishal and Vishnu Vardhan 7-6(7), 6-2; Sandeep Kirtane and Purav Raja bt Vijayant Malik and Kinshuk Sharma 6-1, 6-1.

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