The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Madkekar, Lakhani start favourites

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Sunday, Sep 30, 2007
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Sport - Tennis

Madkekar, Lakhani start favourites

Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI: Aditya Madkekar and Isha Lakhani, the top seeds in the men’s and women’s sections respectively, will start favourites in the DSCL National tennis championship which starts at the DLTA Complex here on Sunday.

While Madkekar would be looking for his maiden title, Isha, the defending champion, already has three double crowns from the National hardcourt championship.

Supremely fit

The supremely fit Madkekar has been competing in the ITF Futures circuit in Indonesia, and should be able to reap the rewards of hard work. He starts against a qualifier.

There are a clutch of other good players like Ashutosh Singh, Vishnu Vardhan, Vivek Shokeen and former National champions Vijay Kannan and Vinod Sridhar to lend susbtance to the men’s field.

The former National junior champion, Navdeep Singh, who qualified for the ATP Tour event in Mumbai this week, will open his campaign against the talented junior wild card entrant, the US-based Rupesh Roy.

Good chance for Isha

In the absence of her nemesis, Ankita Bhambri, the diminutive Isha Lakhani should fancy her chances of making the final without much challenge. It could be a battle between Isha and the seasoned second seed Rushmi Chakravarthi in the final, unless the younger lot spring a surprise or two.

A hint of would be available from the match between former champion Sanaa Bhambri and Shivika Burman.

The junior events played in the under-18 age group this week should be lively both in the boys’ and girls’ sections as there are several good players trying to show their class and firepower.

The men’s champion will get Rs. 1,00,000 and the women’s champion Rs. 80,000.

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