The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Madkekar in last four

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Friday, Aug 10, 2007
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Sport - Tennis

Madkekar in last four

Special Correspondent

LUDHIANA: Aditya Madkekar pulled off an impressive 6-7(8), 6-2, 6-4 victory over Ashutosh Singh in the quarterfinals of the Harvest Academy $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament at Jassowal on Thursday.

Having made the final the previous week, Ashutosh was the favourite against the fourth-seeded Madkekar, who had lost to him in their two previous meetings in the international circuit. However, the 22-year-old Mumbaikar, who trains at the High Performance Centre at Bangalore, played with considerable intensity, especially after losing the first set in making his maiden semifinals at this level.

Madkekar was matching Ashutosh stroke for stroke while saving three setpoints in the first set tie-break, while he himself missed converting one. On his fourth setpoint, Ashutosh came up with a good serve that flew away for an ace, but Madkekar was furious at the call as he contested that the serve had missed the far sideline from the chair umpire.

Verbal volley

A verbal volley resulted in Madkekar being slapped a code violation warning for audible obscenity, but he returned to provide a high quality fare that left little scope for Ashutosh.

In the semifinals, Madkekar will lock horns with the talented Tushar Liberhan who ousted Rohan Gajjar for the loss of mere four games. The lanky Gajjar praised the returning skill of Tushar but stated that he was troubled by a strained thigh muscle that he had aggravated during the doubles the on Wednesday.

In the top half, top-seeded Aqeel Khan of Pakistan played sharp when required to beat Vivek Shokeen in straight sets.

Aqeel through

Aqeel will be challenged by the 31-year-old Katsushi Fukuda of Japan who wore down compatriot Tatsuma Ito, after losing the first set, so much that the latter retired early in the third set.

Gajjar-Madkekar duo beat the champions of last week, the top-seeded Vijay Kannan and Ashutosh Singh in three sets, to line up for the final against the second-seeded Purav Raja and Shokeen.

The results: (Indians unless specified) Singles (quarterfinals): Aqeel Khan (Pak) bt Vivek Shokeen 6-4, 6-4; Katsushi Fukuda (Jpn) bt Tatsuma Ito (Jpn) 6-7(6), 6-2, 2-0 (retd.); Aditya Madkekar bt Ashutosh Singh 6-7(8), 6-2, 6-4; Tusha r Liberhan bt Rohan Gajjar 6-4, 6-0.

Doubles (semifinals): Rohan Gajjar & Aditya Madkekar bt Vijay Kannan & Ashutosh Singh 6-3, 2-6, 6-4; Purav Raja & Vivek Shokeen bt Lance Vodicka (U.S.) & Wang Yu Jr. (Chn) 7-6(2), 7-5.