Tuesday 29 May, 2007

Upsets galore at ATF Series

Parminder Kaur ready to smash a forehand winner

Photo by Sasank Sane


B D Narayankar


bapun@sakalherald.com

DECCAN: At the start of the main draw of PYC ATF Under-17 Series, conditions at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana and Deccan Gymkhana courts was gloomy as gray clouds were hovering around these venues. But, as luck would have it, for some players, their day was resplendent after staging a series of upsets against seeded-players. There were three upsets in the girl’s and one in the boy’s segment.

In the boys section, city lad Advait Sadwilkar knocked out Wildcard Rajat Solanki 7-5, 6-2. In the girl’s, Parminder Kaur out-classed tournament top-seed Sherene WijWsinghia of Sri Lanka 6-1, 6-2, Zainab Ali Sajjad beat seventh seed Ravina Shetty 6-3, 6-1 and Riddhi Hegde prevailed upon eighth seed Madhuri Petere 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Carrying an injury on his shoulders from past four days, Adwait began his low-key campaign with forcing too many errors in the first set, as he was not getting his backhand, forehand cross-courts and serves properly. He shook his head with grimace and stared at his parents for guidance. Probably keeping these options aside was a better option for him to move on to capture the hearts of the people gathered to watch some good tennis.

Soon Adwait found his rhythm and bounced back in the game forcing his rival to battle it out for the first set in the tiebreaker. Adwait won 7-5 down under with an exquisite down-the-line shot leaving Rajat grunting to react for the ball.

The first-set win boosted Adwait’s confidence and he began playing aggressive tennis. As a result, Rajat gifted away the first three games through many unforced errors. This set up Adwait to clinch a victory with forehand return shot.

In the biggest upset of the day, Parminder trounced her Sri Lankan rival Sherene comfortably in straight sets. She had no difficulty in negotiating the top-seed. Though Sherene played a better game, inconsistency did her in.

Parminder utilised her rival’s unforced errors to her advantage and pocketed the first three games of the first set that gave her immense confidence to win. After beating Sherene and gaining confidence, Parminder has the better opportunity to sail into the third round as her next opponent is Samanauz Dashti, a qualifier.
RESULTS: First Round: Boys: J P Mayur Mohit bt Pratik Agawne 6-2, 6-3, Arjun Kadhe bt Anvit Bendre 6-2, 6-2, Rohan Bhatia bt Abhishek Alla 3-6,6-4, 6-3, Ronit Bisht bt Rakshay Thakkar 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, Adwait Sadwilkar bt Rajat Solanki 7-5, 6-0, Devpriya Jaiswal bt Ishan Priyadarshi 6-2, 6-2, Aniruddha Darp bt Neehar Yerawdekar 6-2, 6-3, Sharan Patil bt S.M Abdullah 7-6 (8-6) 6-1, Tushal Thawani bt Om Dalvi 6-2, 6-0, Vishal Passi bt Raghav Lakhotia 7-6(7-2) , 6-1, Vinod Gowda bt Alla Sirkar 6-3, 6-4, Sai Teja Palladugu bt Yash deshpande 6-3, 6-4 , R Ramkumar bt Chandrashekhar Anand 6-1, 6-1 , Karan Kurup bt Arnav Kishor 6-2, 6-1; Girls: Parminder Kaur bt Sherene Wijwsingha 6-1,6-2, Samanauz Dashti bt Lavina Chawla 6-4, 6-4, VKC Vishesh bt Mrilani Alla 4-6,6-4, 7-5, Zainab Ali Sajjad bt Ravina Shetty 6-3, 6-1 , Natsha Palla bt Pooja Narayana 6-1,6-3, Urmila Gunaganti bt Kony Chatterjee 6-2, 6-1, Archita Shruti bt Prutha Ingawale 6-0, 6-1, Namita Bal bt Avanee Gosavi 6-1, 6-2 , Riddhi Hegde bt Madhuri PAthere 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, Aryali Chavan bt Pallavi Krishnaraj 6-4, 6-4 , Sanskruti Jangale bt Aishwarya Nunes 6-2, 6-2, Ankiyta Raina bt Aarzoo Malik 6-4, 6-2, Vaidehi Bhagwat bt Shruti Jaiswal 6-4, 6-0 , Jeni Patel bt Ekta Singh 6-2, 6-2 , Prarthana Thombre bt Sidhhi Umarje 6-0, 6-0.
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WINNERSPEAK: ADWAIT

“Until I won the match, I didn’t knew my opponent Rajat Solanki was a seeded player,” told Adwait Sadwilkar after registering a win in his first round of the main draw of the PYC ATF Under-14 Series on Monday. Speaking to Maharashtra Herald, he said it was not easy to clinch the first set. “I played cautiously after forcing lot many errors. I didn’t hit the ball hard to earn points,” he added. “My shoulder injury was bothering me and could not get my shots properly. But, I picked up my momentum after I put my match-worries behind,” he said. After pulling off the first set in the tie-breaker, I went on the rampage and played aggressively pushing Rajat on the backfoot, who committed lot of mistakes,” Adwait said.

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