The Hindu : Sport : Tendulkar and Bhutia have a go

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 19, 2007
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Sport

Sport

Tendulkar and Bhutia have a go

Amitabha Das Sharma

— Photo: Sushanta Patronobish

From one hero to another: Sachin Tendulkar added a bit of sparkle at the Sunfeast Open which had lost some sheen with Sania’s pullout due to injury.

KOLKATA: Sania Mirza announced, “Game, set and match.” No fiction, but that’s what the motley crowd at the Netaji Indoor Stadium saw on Tuesday. Sania donned the role of a chair umpire supervising a match of the ‘incomparable.’

The all-star cast, specially arranged by the sponsor Sunfeast, had on one side the Sachin Tendulkar pairing up with Russian Maria Kirilenko taking on Baichung Bhutia and Mahesh Bhupathi.

First love

Tendulkar, who said tennis was his first love after cricket, complimented his claims with a performance that never once showed he was practicing an alien art. “That was the first time I had handled a tennis racquet,” said Baichung Bhutia who initially found his forehand returns flying wildly all around. Bhutia received a warning for ‘racquet abuse’ from the chair umpire Sania as he dropped his racquet trying to tackle a rasping return from Maria Kirilenko.

Tendulkar-Kirilenko pair raced up to a 2-0 lead. Saina stepped in to help the trailing pair calling faults on apparently right shots from Tendulkar and Kirilenko. The match ended 2-2 amidst wild cheers of the spectators.

Feature of the day

The Sachin-Sania theme was the feature of the day. The two jointly addressed the media sharing a lot of mutual admiration. “I grew up in India and it is very hard not to watch cricket. It’s very embarrassing, but he has always been my hero,” said Sania about Tendulkar. Tendulkar was also unsparing in his tribute. The star Indian batsman also gave his young colleague hope about coming back from injury. “When you push yourself 100 per cent, there are going to be injuries. But it doesn’t mean that it’s the end of your career. You will come back as long as there is a will and determination,” he said.

Sania said, “I would rather not sit out three months again, I would rather sit out for a couple of weeks and come back and be in the right health again.

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