The Hindu : Ageev outplays Nitin

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 04, 2002

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Ageev outplays Nitin

By K. Keerthivasan

Alexey Ageev of Russia, who beat India's second seed Nitin Kirtane in ITF Futures tennis championship in Chennai on Tuesday, makes a backhand return.— Photo: V. Ganesan.

CHENNAI, SEPT 3. It was a poignant moment. There was no flashlights to give life to it. Long after his opponent had left, long after the referees had gone to their rooms, Nitin Kirtane stayed put in his seat gathering his thoughts. A player known to tire out rivals through sheer perseverance and will power was wondering just what went wrong. Not just here, but the entire three legs.

The second seed was outplayed by Russian qualifier Alexey Ageev 6-2, 6-4 in the first round of the Clinic All Clear $10,000 ITF men's Futures tennis championship at the SDAT-Tennis Stadium here on Tuesday.

For the old warhorse Nitin, the three legs have proved to be big disappointments. Having lost to Moti Maaravi at New Delhi in the first round, and then to Punna Vishal at Gulbarga in the second, Nitin's form is perhaps at its lowest ebb. All these defeats have come in a year in which the 28 year-old has done pretty well claiming three Satellites singles titles and two doubles titles.

Ageev broke Nitin's serve in the third and seventh games to clinch the first set very convincingly. Nitin did make his customary fightback when he broke Ageev's serve in the fourth game to go up 3-2. But the Russian got his break back when he broke Nitin in the seventh game, and soon served for the match. Typical of the man in taking setbacks in his stride, this loss too evoked similar reactions.

``I have atleast one more year in me. I won't give up so easily and I have to think hard about the three weeks. I'll be back for the Sriram Open,'' said Nitin. ``I only have to work on few things.''

Acknowledging Ageev's fine performance, Nitin said, ``he is a fighter, I too am. But today he played better.''

Ageev who lost to eventual winner Viktor Bruthans in the quarterfinals of the Gulbarga leg, seemed happy with his form. ``My backhand worked really well. I was tired after playing the qualifiers but I think he (Nitin) too was tired," said the 28- year old from Moscow.

Wild card Harsh Mankad seemed to have learnt his lessons from the Gulbarga defeat to Sunil Kumar Sipaeya, as he rode over the fifth seed 6-1, 6-4 in an hour and nine minutes, putting an end to the fine run of Sunil who won the Delhi leg and reached the final at Gulbaraga.

After the first set which Harsh played with total authority and confidence, hitting pinpoint groundstrokes from the baseline, Sunil showed flashes of brilliance in the second. Matching Harsh from the baseline, the two traded breaks only once in the fifth and sixth games and the scores read 3-3. But Harsh stepped up the pedal in the crucial 10th game. Serving to stay in the match at 4-5, 15-40 down, Sunil saved one match point with a beautiful forehand winner, but Harsh had the last laugh when Sunil hushed up a forehand and hit it out.

``The balls used here were light which is similar to the one we played in college matches at USA. So I was able to control it better.'' said Harsh. ``I also gave him more balls for him to play.''

Good fightback by Vijay

Earlier in the morning, Vijay Kannan, the fourth seed, serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set, briefly lost his way but found his rhythm early in the decider to script a 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 victory over Punna Vishal in the first round.

The fourth seed Vijay was down 0-3 and 3-5 in the first set. Down 15-40, serving at 5-4, the lanky Chennai lad saved two break points. Finally, a backhand down the line winner gave back Vishal the break. Holding his serve, Vishal came up with some volleys to break Vijay in the 12th game to take the match to the decider.

Playing within himself and avoiding outlandish shots, Vijay took an early 4-1 lead, with some fine approach volleys. At 5-2, 30-30, there were doubts whether Vijay could indeed close out the match given the fact he had missed several easy points earlier, but the National champion squashed such thoughts.

The results: Singles: first round: (Indians unless specified): Yew Ming Si (Mas) bt Somdev K. Dev Varman 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5); Sanchai Ratiwatana (Tha) bt R. Arun Prakash 6-3, 6-4; 4-Vijay Kannan bt Punna Vishal 7-5, 5-7, 6-2; 7-Eliran Dooyev (Isr) bt Ciaran Moore (RSA) 6-3, 4-2 (retd); Rohan Gajjar bt Amod Wakalkar 6-7 (7-3), 7-6 (7-0), 6-2; Harsh Mankad bt 5-Sunil Kumar Sipaeya 6-1, 6-4; Alexey Ageev (Rus) bt 2-Nitin Kirtane 6-2, 6-4; Stephen Nugent (Irl) bt Kamala Kannan 1-6, 6-4, 6-1; R. Nourmatov (Rus) bt Michal Varsanyi (Svk) 6-0, 6-4; 8-Vinod Sridhar bt Iram Peled (Isr) 6-1, 6-2; Jaco T. Mathew bt Dori Sadovnik (Isr) 6-3, 6-2; 6-Ajay Ramaswamy bt Sean Cooper (Irl) 6-3, 6-4; 1-Rohan Bopanna bt Shivang Mishra 6-2, 6-2; 3-Viktor Bruthans (Svk) bt Rishi Sridhar 6-4, 6-2; Sonchat Ratiwatana (Thai) bt Dekel Valtzer (Isr) 7-6 (13-11), 6-2; Igor Branisa (Svk) bt Kedar Tembe 6-4, 7-6 (7-4)

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

Sport

Stories in this Section

Chess

Mary Ann Gomes stuns Nisha

Prakash joins Kidambi in lead

Cricket

Sanjay Bangar — the magic man for India

Pride, honour and paying their price

IOB crushes HCA President's XI

Hockey

India puts it across Australia

Sports : General

Sport digest

Tennis

Ageev outplays Nitin

Agassi storms into last eight