The Hindu : Sport : Sunil Kumar’s campaign ends at Cakl’s hands

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 08, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport

Sunil Kumar’s campaign ends at Cakl’s hands

Principal Correspondent

— Photo: S. Subramanium

CAKEWALK: Shao-Xuan Zeng and Xin-Yuan Yu of China had it easy in the doubles final.

NEW DELHI: Sunil Kumar Sipaeya’s run at the SAIL Open challenger tennis tournament came to a halt after the error prone Indian wilted under pressure from Czech Tomas Cakl at the DLTA Complex here on Friday.

After three quarterfinal showings in his 18 Challengers this year, Cakl finally earned a berth in the final when he out-slugged Sipaeya to win 6-4, 6-2 in exactly an hour.

Cakl will take on fifth-seeded Russian Michail Elgin, who swept Ivan Sergeyev of Ukraine in the first semifinal.

The 27-year-old Cakl seemed upset with the crowd but worked it to his advantage.

“He is a nice player, but I was all fired up after what the crowd did…they were applauding even my double-faults, that’s not fair,” said Cakl.

“He is a better player and I wasn’t good enough today,” said Sipaeya. “I am not disappointed as I had a good run at the tournament, beating better-rated players and I’ll build on the experience,” he added.

The first semifinal was rather one-sided. Michail Elgin had seven aces in his 55-minute 6-1, 6-1 win over Ivan Sergeyev.

The 26-year-old Russian then teamed up with countryman Pavel Chekhov, but failed to find the same rhythm and lost the doubles final 6-3, 6-3 to the Chinese pair of Xin-Yuan Yu and Shao-Xuan Zeng.

The results:

Singles semifinals: Michail Elgin (Rus) bt Ivan Sergeyev (Ukr) 6-1, 6-1, Tomas Cakl (Cze) bt Sunil Kumar Sipaeya 6-4, 6 -2. Doubles final: Xin-Yuan Yu (Chn) and Shao-Xuan Zeng (Chn) bt Pavel Chekhov (Rus) and Elgin 6-3, 6-3.

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

Sport