The Hindu : Sport : Yuki and Poojashree move up

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 01, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport

Yuki and Poojashree move up

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Yuki Bhambri and Poojashree Venkatesh emerged honourable exceptions as the rest of the Indians lost their singles matches in the pre-quarterfinals of the Asia-Oceania ITF junior tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Wednesday.

While the seventh-seeded Yuki dug into his reserves in getting past Vijayant Malik 7-6(6), 6-7(1), 7-5 in three hours and 13 minutes, the second-seeded Poojashree asserted herself in the girls event with a 7-5, 6-0 triumph over Satjaporn Mahajaroenkul of Thailand.

He showed the hunger to succeed in prevailing over Malik in a lively contest that tested his wit and serving prowess.

Yuki reeled off the last three games of the match. He had saved three set points to clinch the first set and had failed to capitalise on an early break in the second set. In the decider, it was Vijayant who led 4-1, but Yuki clawed his way back.

In the quarterfinals, Yuki will lock horns with the fourth-seeded Matt Reid of Australia who saved six match points to pip Karunuday Singh in the third set tie-break. Karunuday played hard but was unlucky not to convert any of those match points.

Meanwhile, the top-seeded Bernard Tomic of Australia was beaten by the 292nd ranked Chinese, Di Wu, in a contest in which both the players showed a lot of maturity and court craft, as much as a clean game.

The Chinese broke Tomic in the third game of the decider and held on to the advantage with an impressive all-round game.

The Indian girls, Kelsey Sundaram and Shivika Burman won their first sets against quality opponents, but failed miserably to capitalise on the advantage and bowed out meekly.

In contrast, Poojashree asserted herself after getting off to a smooth start and racing to 4-1 lead. She did struggle a bit while conceding four games in a row at that stage, but reeled off the next nine games to overwhelm her Thai opponent.

The results (pre-quarterfinals): Boys: Di Wu (Chn) bt Bernard Tomic (Aus) 6-3, 5-7, 6-4; Tearney Finn (Nzl) bt Yuki Matsuo (Jpn) 6-2, 6-4; Tadayuki Longhi (Jpn) bt Stephen Hoh (Aus) 6-2, 6-0; Peerakit Siributwong (Tha) bt Chandril Sood 6-3, 6-4; Yuki Bhambri bt Vijayant Malik 7-6(6), 6-7(1), 7-5; Matt Reid (Aus) bt Karunuday Singh 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(6); Hiroki Morya (Jpn) bt Mackenzie Logan (Nzl) 7-5, 6-3; Kittipong Wachiramonowong (Tha) bt B. Vikram Reddy 6-1, 6-3.

Girls: Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (Tha) bt Kelsey Sundaram 3-6, 6-0, 6-0; Jade Hooper (Aus) bt Kanyapat Narattana (Tha) 6-4, 4-6, 6-1; Aleksandra Kolesnichenko (Uzb) bt Nicha Lertpitaksinchai (Tha) 6-4, 6-3; Beatrice Gumulya (Ina) bt Sophia Mulsap (Tha) 6-4, 7-6(3); Yang Zi-Jun Jun (Hkg) bt Janaki Gunuganti 6-3, 6-3; Jessy Priskilla Rompies (Ina) bt Rashmi Teltumbe 6-3, 6-3; Khunpak Issara (Tha) bt Shivika Burman 2-6, 6-1, 6-0; Poojashree Venkatesh bt Satjaporn Mahajaroenkul (Tha) 7-5, 6-0.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail