Ayumi all the way

Though the $50,000 tournament fulfilled its prime objective by attracting a good number of players from India, none of them could advance beyond the pre-quarterfinals in the singles and quarterfinals in the doubles. This made the exercise largely futile.

The field in the ITF Women’s Challenger in Kolkata proved too easy for Ayumi Morita of Japan, who stormed to the title without conceding a set.

The $50,000 tournament, hosted by the Bengal Tennis Association and sponsored by Gujarat NRE Coke, was held at the behest of the AITA (All India Tennis Association) in order to provide international exposure to Indian players in preparation for the 20 10 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. Though the tournament fulfilled its prime objective by attracting a good number of players from the country, none of the Indians could advance beyond the pre-quarterfinals in the singles and quarterfinals in the doubles, thus making the exercise largely futile.

The No. 5 seed, Sunitha Rao, who is based in the US and of whom a lot was expected, survived only one round before losing to a qualifier, Emily Webley-Smith (Great Britain). Shikha Uberoi, also based in the US, was no match for seventh-seeded Ksenia Palkina of Kazakhstan. Shikha complained of some uneasiness as she went down tamely to Palkina.

Shikha, who is trying to make a comeback after a long lay-off due to injury, appeared rusty. Teaming up with Sunitha, the Fed Cup player also went down in the quarterfinals of the doubles.

Most of the Indians in the main draw of the singles were wildcards. Apart from Shikha, the other players who got wildcards were Sanaa Bhambri, Rushmi Chakravarthi and Shivika Burman. Sanaa beat India No. 3 Isha Lakhani to enter the pre-quarterfinals.

For the seasoned Rushmi and Shivika, the story ended in the first round itself. Ankita Bhambri, ranked No. 388 in the ITF rankings, which enabled her to get a direct entry, too failed to advance beyond the first round.

The first round also saw some major upsets as third-seeded Chin-Wei Chan of Chinese Taipei and sixth-seeded Liana-Gabriela Ungur of Romania crashed out. Chan lost to a qualifier, Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia, while Ungur retired injured after losing the first set to Leonie Mekel of the Netherlands.

Jovanovski had the most impressive run among the qualifiers, as she knocked out another seeded player, Kai-Chen Chang of Chinese Taipei (seeded No. 8), to set up a semifinal clash with the eventual champion, Ayumi.

The pre-quarterfinals also spelt doom for three other seeded players. Top-seeded Malanie South (Great Britain) lost to the junior Wimbledon finalist, Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand.

Noppawan was later beaten by Elora Dabija of Romania in the quarters. After fourth-seeded Agnes Szatmari of Romania and fifth-seeded Sunitha crashed out, Ayumi, ranked No. 118 on the ITF list and seeded No. 2 here, was the highest ranked player left in the draw.

Ayumi continued her good form and proved too sharp for the unseeded Elora as she blew away the Romanian in straight sets to win the title.

Laura Siegemund (Germany) and Agnes Szatmari (Romania) won the doubles title, defeating the top-seeded Chinese pair of Jing-Jing Lu and Sheng-Nan Sun 7-5, 6-3.

THE RESULTS(Prefix denotes seeding)

Singles final: 2-Ayumi Morita (Japan) bt Elora Dabija (Romania) 6-3, 6-1. Semifinals: Elora bt Sophie Ferguson (Australia) 6-2, 7-6 (7-4); Ayumi bt Bojana Jovanovski (Serbia) 6-1, 6-3.

Doubles final: 3-Laura Siegemund (Germany) & Agnes Szatmari (Romania) bt 1-Jing-Jing Lu & Sheng-Nan Sun (China) 7-5, 6-3. Semifinals: Jing-Jing & Sheng-Nan bt Sophie Ferguson (Australia) & Alexis Prousis (USA) 6-3, 6-3; Laura & Agnes bt 2-Chin-Wei Chan & Yi Chen (Chinese Taipei) 4-6, 6-3, (10-6).

* * *'It's all in the mind'

Tibor Bednar, who is on a coaching assignment at the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board Academy in Ajmer, is on a mission. The 28-year-old Slovakian table tennis player wants to instil confidence in the 25-odd trainees at the academy that they can become champions if they work hard and show commitment.

Bednar, who was in Vijayawada during the Sub-junior Inter-State Championship, is of the view that table tennis, like chess, is more of a mind game.

“Anticipation is the key to success in table tennis. One should force his rival into committing mistakes for which one should keep the ball on the table,” says Bednar, who was on a coaching assignment earlier in Spain.

According to Bednar, his primary lesson to his wards soon after he took over as the coach of the PSPB Academy was on the importance of serve and service return. “You win 50 per cent of the points once you learn to master the serve and the return of serve,” he points out.

Bednar is of the view that Indian paddlers lack fitness. “Most of them are either thin with weak legs or flabby. Meat intake is a must to tone up muscles and gain power. Just eating vegetables is not sufficient,” he suggests.

Though his teams failed to win the team championships, Bednar is confident that some of his boys would go a long away. “V. Nitin, Mohit Varma, S. Saha, S. Das, Abhishek Yadav and Vivek Bhargav are some of the trainees at the academy who have the wherewithal to become champions,” he says.

* * *Tondulkar steals the show

Vijay Manjrekar XI won the 23rd Sportstar Trophy Mumbai Cricket Association U-19 Selection Tournament, scoring 10 points in the round robin format. Dattu Phadkar XI (5 points) took the second spot, followed by Vijay Merchant XI and Khandu Rangnekar XI (2 points each).

Mumbai’s promising U-19 cricketers, short-listed by the MCA, formed the four teams. The matches were of four-day duration and similar to the Ranji Trophy format. This was aimed at giving the youngsters the experience of playing in the longer format of the game at a time when instant cricket has been diluting cricketing skills.

Rohan Tondulkar of Vijay Merchant XI displayed the talent and temperament, aggregating 299 runs in six innings. He batted for nearly five hours to compile a patient 91 against Manjrekar XI in a league game, facing 329 balls and hitting 10 boundaries. Sahil Madgaonkar (6-32) and wicketkeeper Sumit Ghadigaonkar (90 & 15 not out) were the outstanding performers for the champion team.

Tondulkar was adjudged the ‘Player of the tournament’; he received the Ramakant Desai Trophy, a Sportstar cricket kit and a Nike kit bag.

Former Mumbai Ranji coach and ex-India wicketkeeper, Chandrakant Pandit, inaugurated the event and the MCA’s senior selection committee member, Shishir Hattangadi, was the chief guest at the closing day function.

Individual awards: Sumit Ghadigaonkar (best fielder), Himanshu Sonthalia (best bowler), Rahul Tondulkar (best batsman).

Man of the Match awards: Siddharth Kinlekar (Rangnekar XI), Sahil Madgaonkar (Manjrekar XI), Pratik Dabolkar (Phadkar XI), Sumit Ghadigaonkar (Manjrekar XI), Siddhesh Prasad (Rangnekar XI), Rahul Tondulkar (Merchant XI).

Player of the Tournament: Rahul Tondulkar.

By Amitabha Das Sharma, Nandakumar Marar & J.R. Sridharan.