Shruti announces her return with a bang

By Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 6. Shruti Dhawan announced her return to the professional circuit with a 6-0, 2-6, 6-4 victory over the second-seeded Sai Jayalakshmy in the pre-quarterfinals of the $10,000 ITF women's circuit tennis tournament, at the DLTA Complex here on Wednesday.

In an uninhibited exhibition of strokeplay, the 18- year-old Shruti prevailed with her ability to play the key points better than Sai this day. Shruti saved two breakpoints in the eighth game of the decider to be on par and reeled off the next two games without any fuss in scoring her third consecutive triumph over the 23-year-old Sai.

There was no trace of the long lay-off forced by a back injury. The athletic Shruti, playing only her second tournament in more than a year, was quick in hammering away winners into the corners while grabbing the first set in just 23 minutes. The 433rd ranked Sai was tentative then, but found the range of her strokes in the second set in which Shruti struggled with her serves and failed to hold even once. There was a touch of assurance in Sai's groundstrokes, and by moving to the net she kept the pressure on Shruti.

The Chandigarh girl in contrast was a bit rooted to the ground during the course of the second set giving too many short balls to be put away by Sai.

In the decider, Shruti got off to a 2-0 start with a break in the first game, but three further exchange of breaks saw the two on par at 3-3. Sai held for 4-3, but allowed her game to fall apart thereafter, even as Shruti tightened the grip, in gaining a quarterfinals meeting with the powerfully-built Veronika Raimrova of the Czech Republic.

The heroine of the previous day, Rushmi Chakravarthi was unable to continue from where she had left against Monique Adamczak on Tuesday, and slumped to a straight-forward defeat against the big-serving and hard-stroking Veronika. The 739th ranked Czech did well to save a clutch of breakpoints in the first set, and powered her way through against her 497th ranked opponent, who was grappling with her indifferent form and a series of bad calls.

Another player to be at her fluent best was the fleet- footed Sonal Phadke. The National junior champion quelled the challenge from Radhika Tulpule for the loss of a solitary game. It was an impressive fare from the 18-year-old Sonal to have come back from a three-hour duel against Archana the previous day, to be at her best against a tough opponent, though she seems to have had the measure of Radhika in recent meetings.

Sonal will run into the top-seeded Manisha Malhotra, who was trying to put her serve and volley game together, and get her feet moving with a lot more agility in her 6-4, 6-2 triumph over Shalini Thakur. Unless she is overpowered, Sonal can be a tough customer, as she plays every point on merit, with a cool approach and steely determination.

The 15-year-old Megha Vakharia engaged the fourth- seeded I-Ting Wang of Chinese Taipei in a lively exchange of strokes on the fast courts, but lacked the energy in the end as she went down tamely in the decider, 6-4, 3-6, 0-6. In a battle of the left- handers, Megha was able to keep pace with her experienced opponent in the first set, in which she broke decisively in the ninth game. She bounced back from 1-3 to be on par in the second set, but I-Ting Wang stepped up her game thereafter to cruise through, rattling off the next nine games.

The Taipei teenager will meet Karishma Patel, who proved too good for Geeta Manohar on the fast courts with her strong groundstrokes.

The Thai girls, Orawan Wongkamalasai and Suchanan Viratprasert set up a quarterfinals between themselves, with comfortable wins against T. Yamini and Jennifer Schmidt respectively. The Austrian played her strokes freely, but Suchanan proved far too consistent to give her more than five games.

The results:

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Manisha Malhotra bt Shalini Thakur 6-4, 6-2; Sonal Phadke bt Radhika Tulpule 6-1, 6-0; I. Ting Wang (Tpe) bt Megha Vakharia 4-6, 6-3, 6-0; Karishma Patel bt Geeta Manohar 6-2, 6-0; Suchanan Viratprasert (Tha) bt Jennifer Schmidt (Aut) 6-2, 6-3; Orawan Wongkamalasai (Tha) bt T. Yamini 6-0, 6-1; Veronika Raimrova (Cze) bt Rushmi Chakravarthi 6-3, 6-2; Shruti Dhawan bt Sai Jayalakshmy 6-0, 2-6, 6-4.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Rushmi Chakravarthi/Sai Jayalakshmy bt T. Yamini/Geeta Manohar 6-3, 6-0; Monique Adamczak (Aus)/Jennifer Schmidt (Aut) bt Shalini Thakur/Sheethal Goutham 6-4, 6-2; Shruti Dhawan/Radhika Tulpule bt Ana Sismundini (Esp)/Nona Wagh 6-2, 6- 0; I-Ting Wang (Tpe)/Orawan Wongkamalasai (Tha) bt Karishma Patel/Jyotsna Vasisht 6-3, 6-4.

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