The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Prakash happy with maturity on court

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Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007
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Sport - Tennis

Prakash happy with maturity on court

Kamesh Srinivasan

— Photo: AP

IMPROVED SHOW: Prakash Amritraj’s performance at Newport has provided a shot in the arm for Indian tennis.

NEW DELHI: He likes grass, but was stopped from putting his feet on the surface for more than two days. Prakash Amritraj responded not only by qualifying but also by staying long enough on the surface to reach the quarterfinals of the Hall of Fame ATP Tour event at Newport, an effort that provided a shot in the arm for Indian tennis last week.

Having won three titles on the trot in the ITF Futures circuit in India, Prakash was brimming with confidence, and was keen to capitalise on the Tour event on his favourite surface.

It was all mental

“I got to Newport on Thursday, hoping to practice on the grass before my match on Saturday. But not only was practice not allowed for qualifiers on Thursday and Friday, but we weren’t even allowed to warm up on the grass. I had been looking forward to this event for a while as it is my only event on grass for the season. I told myself that it was all mental and after all it was a surface that I was most comfortable,” said Prakash, when contacted by The Hindu in t he United States.

The 23-year-old Prakash became the first Indian after Leander Paes in 1999 to make the quarterfinals of a Tour event, as he put up a quality fare against the top professionals.

“It was satisfying to beat the second seed Robert Smeets of Austrlaia in the qualifying event. Smeets was a big serving lefty, but I was able to keep my focus and win in straight sets, even though I was down a setpoint in the first set and down 3-5 in the second,” Prakash revealed, about the intriguing second round match in the qualifying phase.

Make further impact

Having qualified in the $416,000 event, it was important for Prakash to make further impact.

“My first round was against a tough customer from Serbia, Ilija Bozoljac. He had a huge serve and powerful ground-strokes. He had, in fact, tied Andy Roddick’s world service speed record in the Davis Cup last year!

Rallies to win

I lost the first set as I was not playing as well as he did, and had dropped serve thrice. I was proud that I didn’t fold at this point and was able to change the complexion of the match, winning the next two sets for the loss of six games. It was a real sign of maturity to find a way to win from a losing scenario. It was something that I used to struggle earlier,” said Prakash with understandable satisfaction.

Playing for a place in the quarterfinals, Prakash focused on the tennis rather than the situation as he tackled wild card Scoville Jenkins of the United States.

“It was again a good sign that I played some wonderful grass court tennis in a very significant match against Jenkins. The quarterfinal against fifth seed Nicolas Mahut of France was tough, especially considering that he had made the Queens final, beating Rafael Nadal and Ivan Ljubicic.

“I did take away some positives from the match. I lost 4 and 6 but was up 3-0 in the second set. I realised during the match that this guy was competing and beating some of the best in the world, and I was standing toe to toe with a very good chance to win,” recalled Prakash.

Summing it up

Summing up the overall experience of shooting back to the top league, Prakash emphasised that the biggest difference in his game was the mental maturity.

“I was never satisfied with one or two wins. Always wanted to keep going. I know that I belong to the big league. Need to focus on the basics, and keep getting better. If I do well in the next few weeks, I will stay on course for the U.S. Open. Otherwise, will head to Asia for some Challengers before the Mumbai ATP event,” signed off Prakash.

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