Allegre ambushes Tomashevich

By Kalyan Ashok

JORHAT, JAN. 11. Top seed Dmitri Tomashevich's roller-coaster ride came to an end in the $10,000 ITF Futures tennis championship as the sixth seed Vincent Allegre played near flawless tennis to beat him 6-1, 6-2 in exactly an hour in the quarterfinals at the Jorhat Tennis Club here today. The pugnacious Tomashevich, who was involved in tiring three-setters in the earlier rounds, threw in the towel as soon as he realised that the match was slipping out of his hand. He made too many unforced errors and even his steady serve was shaky today. Tomashevich simply had no clue against his rampaging rival, who played strongly from the back court.

Tomashevich began well in the first set, breaking his rival in the very first game, but Allegre took the next six in a row. Allegre carried on in the same vein in the second set too. He broke Tomashevich in the third game, won three games on his serve at love to take a 3-1 lead. He then broke Tomashevich again in the fifth game, with the Uzbek putting a return long and netting the other off a high ball.

Down 1-4, things looked pretty bleak for the top seed but his hopes flickered when he broke Allegre in the sixth game to cut the deficit to 2-4. But Tomashevich squandered that chance, dropping his serve again in the seventh game. He saved a break point at 30-40 with a strong serve, but double-faulted at deuce to give Allegre the advantage. The 562nd-ranked Frenchman quickly finished off the game to take a 5-2 lead, and closed out the set and match on his serve (6-2).

Germany's Denis Gremelmayr, with his all-court game, took Fred Hemmes of Netherlands in his stride. Ranked 626 on the ATP list, the hard-hitting German won 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) in 118 minutes. Hemmes, after a dismal first set, battled bravely in the second. He held serve in the 11th game after two deuces and the set spilled into a tie-break as Gremelmayr held serve in the 12th game. Gremelmayr raced to a 5-1 lead in the tie-break, but struggled to close it as Hemmes made a last ditch effort, belting some scorching backhand winners. Gremelmayr, however, hung on grimly to wrap up the set and match.

Italian Fabio Maggi, ranked in the top 200 a few seasons ago, is on a comeback trail after a long lay-off following a wrist injury. He authored an emphatic 6-4, 6-2 win over Ivan Cerovic of Croatia today. The match was marked by a couple of disputed calls and Maggi was clearly unhappy with his rival's delaying tactics.

Tomashevich in doubles final

Tomashevich, however, had some consolation as he entered the doubles final partnering Indian Davis Cupper, Syed Fazaluddin. The pair defeated the Indonesian combination of Wibowo and Wiryawan 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 in a hard-fought encounter lasting over 130 minutes.

The results:

Singles (quarterfinals): Denis Gremelmayr (Ger) bt Fred Hemmes (Ned) 6-1, 7-6 (7-4); Andreas Fasching (Aut) bt James Nelson (GBR) 7-5, 6-4; Fabio Maggi (Ita) bt Ivan Cerovic (Cro) 6-4, 6-2; Vincent Allegre (Fra) bt Dmitri Tomashevich (Uzb) 6-1, 6-2.

Doubles (semifinals): Tomashevich (Uzb)/Syed Fazaluddin (Ind) bt Wibowo/Wiryawan (Ind) 5-7, 6-2, 7- 5; Freelove/Nelson (GBR) bt Rik de Voest (RSA)/Pramono (Ina) 7-6 (7-3), 7-5.

Anna enters semifinals

CHENNAI, JAN. 11. Captain Vijai Rajagopal helped host Anna- winning both his singles and the crucial doubles tie with V.N. Sriram- beat Nagarjuna 3-1 in the quarterfinals of the South-West Zone inter-university tennis tournament, organised by the Sports Board, Anna University, here on Thursday.

The semifinal line-up: Anna-Mysore and Rajiv Gandhi Health Science-Madras.

The results (quarterfinals): Mysore bt Bharatiyar 3-0; Rajiv Gandhi Health Science bt Osmania 3-0; Madras bt Pune 3-1 and Anna bt Nagarjuna 3-1.

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