The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Bopanna rallies from the brink

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Friday, Apr 04, 2008
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Bopanna rallies from the brink

Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH: Rohan Bopanna survived a matchpoint to beat Danila Arsenov of Russia 6-7(8), 7-6(1), 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the ITF Futures tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex here on Thursday.

In a nerve-wracking contest that had the sparse gathering on the seat edge for close to three hours, Bopanna came up with an instinctive half-volley drop on matchpoint against Arsenov in the 10th game of the second set to swing the match his way.

Not having played over the last three weeks, Bopanna was not that sharp initially but the Indian Davis Cupper showed urgency at the crunch to get past the Russian.

Bopanna had specifically flown in from the US to get some matches before the Asia-Oceania group I second round Davis Cup tie against Japan to be played in New Delhi from April 11 to 13.

He was serving big — he had 19 aces — but was unable to push the opponent till the tie-break of the second set.

Into the decider, Bopanna led 3-0 with a break in the second game, but dropped serve for the first time in the match in the fifth game, following a bad call. However, the Russian was below his best by now and Bopanna converted the third breakpoint with a fluent backhand cross court in the eighth game. He closed out the match in style with an ace.

Bopanna will face Divij Sharan who overcame an early break to outclass Roman Jebavy of the Czech Republic.

Harsh Mankad handled the challenge well to sidestep the 15-year-old Yuki Bhambri in a quality contest. He will meet the third-seeded Hyun-Woo Nam of Korea who got past Vivek Shokeen in a baseline battle of powerplay.

The results: Singles (quarterfinals): Rohan Bopanna bt Danila Arsenov (Rus) 6-7(8), 7-6(1), 6-3; Divij Sharan bt Roman Jebavy (Cze) 7-5, 6-2; Hyun-Woo Nam (Kor) bt Vivek Shokeen 6-4, 6-2; Harsh Mankad bt Yuki Bhambri 6-4, 6-3.

Doubles (semifinals): Rohan Gajjar & Purav Raja bt Vivek Shokeen & Ashutosh Singh 6-4, 6-7(5), 10-4; Harsh Mankad & Rupesh Roy bt Yuki Bhambri & Kamala Kannan 6-3, 6-1.

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