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Monday, Dec 17, 2007
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National grasscourt tournament from today

Amitabha Das Sharma

Kolkata: The grass courts of South Club here will host the National grasscourt tournament, which formally gets underway on Monday, after the break of nearly a decade. The new generation of tennis players have responded positively, showing up in big numbers. The city last hosted the tournament in 2001 while the South Club was venue in 1998.

Apart from the sentimental aspect, the big factor fuelling the interest is the offer of an ATP Chennai Open wildcard for the winner of the tournament.

No one is actually complaining the way tradition and pragmatism have been laced to recreate the lost charm of a tournament that once dominated the country’s tennis calendar.

“Grass is still the preferred turf for Davis Cup ties in India. Naturally, this makes National grass court tournament an important fixture for players aspiring to represent the country,” said Harsh Mankad, who is one of the favourites in the tournament.

Younger players

Mankad, who made it to the Davis Cup squad before being grounded with a knee injury, would be taking on the challenge of a clutch of younger players. The first in the line is top-seeded Karan Rastogi. The 21-year-old from Mumbai, who is ranked third in the country, would be looking to exploit the absence of the two top ranked players Rohan Bopanna and Prakash Amritraj.

Reflecting on his performance in the season, Rastogi said he had played well “in patches”. He rode good form in the first half of the season winning a Future (in Morocco) and reaching successive Futures finals at home, all of which he lost to Prakash Amritraj.

This tournament gives him a chance to finish the season on a high note while making his position stronger in the Davis Cup squad. Rastogi was a semifinalist in the last edition of the tournament held in Delhi in 2005. The road to glory this time is not going to be easy as the draw presented a tight field with the likes of reigning National hard-court champion Ashutosh Singh, Divij Sharan, Vivek Shokeen and the experienced Mankad and Vinod Sridhar bracing for battle.

On Sunday, two out of the eight main draw slots were decided.

The seedings: Men: 1. Karan Rastogi (Mah), 2. Ashutosh Singh (Dli), 3. Aditya Madkekar (Kar), 4. Divij Sharan, 5. Vivek Shokeen (both Dli), 6. J. Vishnu Vardhan (AP), 7. Vinod Sridhar, 8. Prajnesh Guneshwaran (both TN).

Women: 1. Rushmi Chakravarthy (TN), 2. Sonal Phadke (Mah), 3. Asha Nanda Kumar (Kar), 4. Parul Goswami, 5. Sweta Solanki (both Dli), 6. Ragini Vimal (Ben), 7. Rashmi Teltumbde (Mah), 8. Shalini Sahoo (Dli).

The results (final round qualifying): Men’s singles: Anshuman Dutta (Asm) bt Jagadeeshan Kumar (Kar) 6-3,6-2; Divyanshu Singh (Del) bt Bhishma Desai (Guj) 6-1, 6-4.

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