Federer beats Somdev 6-3, 6-3

It's not everyday that an Indian tennis player takes on one of the all-time greats of the sport. So naturally Indian tennis fans were savouring when the draw for this week's Dubai Open was out and they learnt that Somdev Devvarman would be taking on none other than Roger Federer. The last time interest around a match was so high here was when Sania Mirza took on Serena Williams in the Australian Open six years ago. Not many were expecting Somdev to upset Roger but that didn't stop a billion people from hoping for a mircale.

The Centre Court was with Indian expats who account for a sizable portion of the local populaiton here and they were firmly behind the Indian. From the very start, it was evdient that this was going to be a tough night for Somdev. He needed 3 deuces to hold his first service game and came from 0-30 behind to hold his second while Federer breezed through his early service games. Devvarman, who needed a wild card to get into the tournament, double faulted down breakpoint at 2-3 to hand Federer the lead. One break was all Federer needed as he wrapped up the first set 6-3in 30 minutes.

In the second set, Devvarman saved 2 breakpoints to hold for 2-1 and had his only chance when he earned 2 breakpoints on the Swiss' serve. But Federer managed to escape and broke Somdev immediately in the next game as he went on to win the second set 6-3 as well.

Somdev certainly did not embarass himself againt the player widely regarded as the greatest ever to play the game. Interestingly,I thought he played more aggresively against Federer than he has against lower ranked opponents in his matches that I have seen in the past and he even won a fair amount of the points when he was playing agressively. That's certainly a good sign for Som, who should be using that same strategy against other players if he is to move further in the rankings. His ranking, currently at a career high #79, will likely drop to #97 after failing to defend his second round points from last year's event but the confidence and leanrings form his defeat today could help him evenntually go higher.

When an Indian upset the world's best tennis player

There were three upsets to choose from in round three of the Pilot Pen International hardcourt tournament, but the one involving world number 100 Leander Paes and world number two Pete Sampras was easily the highlight.

The top three seeds -- Pete Sampras, Patrick Rafter and Petr Korda in that order-- all crashed out in the third-round on a dramatic day.

Reigning Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras lost 6-3, 6-4 to India's number one Leander Paes.

Frenchman Guillaume Raoux meanwhile ousted U.S. Open champion Rafter 7-6 (10-8), 6-3, while Bohdan Ulihrach beat fellow Czech Korda 7-6 (8-6), 6-3.

Leander had his inside-out forehand working lethally in the first set, and the running forehand working on song in the second set.

As Leander himself said before the tournament, his service was working smoothly again. He broke his own personal service speed record with a 120 mph one down the middle in this match. His previous best was 118 mph against Pioline at the US Open last year.

Leander constantly troubled Sampras with his quickness and placements, breaking him in the 6th game of the first set to go up 4-2. He was down three break points, at 0-40, in the next game, but went on to serve it out and take the first set 6-3.

In the second set, Paes took Sampras to deuces at 1-1 and 2-2, and then faced break points on his own serve at 2-3. But again, he held on to his nerve, and evened it to 3-3. Paes then faced a break point on serve at 3-4, but survived that one as well.

Then came an all out battle, with Paes taking the honours by breaking Sampras for a 5-4 lead. The Indian then came up with 3 aces in a row to ice the game, set, and match.

Coming into this tournament, Pete Sampras was on a mental edge, following his defeat at the hands of Patrick Rafter the previous Sunday. The final point of that game was a Rafter ace, called out by the line judge before the umpire overruled the call and made it good.

An agitated Sampras had protested at the time and, earlier in this tournament, said the incident still weighed heavily on his mind.

In this game, Sampras again seemed hassled by a reversed call by the umpire at deuce on Leander's serve in the 7th game of the first set. The world number two kept muttering at the umpire and lost focus for a while.

Sampras also did not seem to have the speed in his legs that he needed. His usually impeccable serve was also not on song, with Leander actually out-acing Sampras 7-4 in the match.

The win gives Leander 26 more tournament points, plus a 45 point bonus for beating the world number two -- a total of 71 points from the match, and 119 overall in the tournament thus far, for having in earlier rounds dumped the higher ranked Marc Rosset in round one and followed it up with an upset of former French Open champ Sergei Bruguera in round two.

The points he has gained thus far should see him make a qualititative leap, to somewhere between 77-70 in the ATP rankings when they are released next Monday.

Leander was ranked number 162 in March with over two-thirds of his 280 points to be defended over. From that point on, he has been on a roll, in the process taking his first ever career singles title at the Hall of Fame championships last month.

In the quarterfinals to be played today, he meets eighth seed Goran Ivanisevic, ranked 16 this week on the ATP.

In their personal head to head, the two players stand at 1-1. They first clashed in the Davis Cup in 1995, when Leander beat Ivanisevic in a massive five-set battle, 6-7, 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-1.

The next was a 7-6, 6-3 win by Ivanisevic in 1997 at the Queensland tournament, again on grass.

"I felt very flat. Playing three weeks in a row has taken its toll emotionally. You can't afford to be flat in this league," said Sampras, who plans to return home to Orlando, Florida, to recharge for the U.S. Open.

"Losing before the Slams is not as bad as losing in the Slam," Sampras said.

"Losing is not good for the confidence, but I know that by the time the U.S. Open comes along, I'll be ready," said Sampras.

Paes, who won the doubles title here last year in tandem with friend and partner Mahesh Bhupathi, said his strategy was to 'chip and charge' and get to the net.

"I think that he served under-par today, and that allowed me to get to the net," said Paes.

"My main thing was to take the match to him. If you let Pete Sampras dictate the match, you pretty much have no chance," he said.

Ironically, after winning his Hall of Fame title, Paes had opted out for a while, preferring to practise. And in Florida, his hitting partner was none other than Sampras himself.

It was after one such practise session that Paes injured himself with a fall in the dressing room, and the resulting pain around the rib cage has seen him off colour the last three weeks. He, however, returned full steam -- ironically, against Sampras himself.

However, the euphoria of the singles win was somewhat diluted later the same evening, when the top seeded "Indian Express" doubles pair of Leander Paes/Mahesh Bhupathi lost in the second round.

The Indians went down 3-6, 3-6 to the unseeded pair of Wayne Arthurs and Peter Tramacchi.

After the match, Leander said that "He was a bit down".

Curiously, history repeated itself here. Every time the Indians are seeded to meet the Australian ace pair of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde in a final, one of the two combos suffers an early exit.

Leander and Mahesh now have to do some hard work in doubles having failed to defend two titles in a row. They have more points to defend at the US Open, and the next two tournaments they play after the US Open are the Singapore open and Beijing open where they have titles to defend.

Source - Rediff.net

THE RISING BRIT

Andy Murray has been shouldering Great Britain’s hopes at the Slams for while now and is treated like British royalty every June when Wimbledon comes around. But you have to go down to no. 211 to find the next British men’s player in the world rankings – 24 year old James Ward. On the women’s side, Elena Baltacha and Anne Keovthavong, both 27 year olds, have established themselves as regulars in the top 100 on the women’s side. That’s two additional wild cards in the hands of the Wimbledon organizers for lower ranked British women. And while the Brits have been holding out for Laura Robson to make her breakthrough on the professional circuit, another Brit teenager is rising up the ranks rapidly and making people, not only in her success-starved homeland, take notice.

Heather Watson will not turn 19 for another 3 months and is already the youngest player in the world’s top 150, with a current ranking of #145 which is only going to rise further thanks to another solid performance in at the WTA event in Memphis this week.

Robson was the first of the two young Brits to hit the headlines when she won the Wimbledon junior girls title in 2008 at the precocious age of 14. Her victory made her the first British player to win the girls' event since Annabel Croft in 1984, and the British media described her as the "new darling" of British tennis as she went on to claim to world #1 junior ranking in April 2009. But Robson is yet to achieve a breakthrough result on the professional tour. Watson, who trains at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida, also has a junior Grand Slam title to her name – the 2009 US Open girls’ singles title. And while Robson is still outside the top 200 in the world rankings, Watson has posted consistent results over the past 12 months that warrant her inclusion in the list of the game’s rising stars.

Coached by Andrew Fisher and a former world no. 3 junior, Watson won her first professional title on the lower-rung ITF circuit in July 2009. In 2010, she posted a solid 36-22 record for the year highlighted by qualifying for the WTA events in Charleston, where she lost to Russian Elena Vesnina in the first round, and in Eastbourne where she also won 2 main draw matches, scoring wins over three top 100 players - Tsvetana Pironkova , Bojana Jovanovski, and Aleksandra Wozniak before losing to Victoria Azarenka in the third round. Watson won two more ITF titles in 2010 – in Britain in July and in Canada in November.

In 2011, Watson has already won 11 of 15 matches, highlighted by her run in Auckland, where she went from the qualifying draw to reach the first quarter-final on tour losing to Shuai Peng. And in this week’s WTA Memphis stop, Watson once again advanced through the qualifying draw and reached another quarter-final, where she was beaten by Russia’s Evgineya Rodina on Thursday.

The right handed Watson, who plays with a two-handed backhand, is not just another blonde ball-basher. Her game is often likened to Martina Hingis and Bollettieri himself has cited the Brit for her amazing footwork. According to Nigel Sears, head of women's coaching at the Lawn Tennis Association, Watson possesses "a complete game", with a massive amount of variety including the consistent use of a one-handed backhand slice, volleys and angles.”

Robson is 19 months younger than Watson and that is enough time for her to make the same strides that Watson has over the past year. But Watson is unlikely to step aside to make way for her younger compatriot. By Wimbledon time, Watson would likely earn enough points to gain direct entry into the main draw while Robson will have to most likely have to depend on a wild card. The expectations from both will be high from the British public, who will be hoping that Kate Middleton is not the only new British royalty to debut at this year’s Championships.


For my earlier articles, visit my Facebook page and click on the 'LIKE" icon to ensure you receive the updates.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Haresh-Ramchandanis-Tennis-Chronicles/106612526073357

Sania Mirza advances to the second round of WTA Dubai Open

India's Sania Mirza, ranked #134 in the world, defeated world #64 Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan 6-3, 6-1 in just under an hour to advance to the second round of the WTA Dubai Open. Cheered on by a partisan crowd of Indian expats, Mirza won the match which was the last scheduled match of the evening on the Centre Court for her first WTA Tour main draw win since last September.

Mirza, who had to rely on a wild card to get into the main draw, will now play qualifier world #57 Ayumi Morita of Japan, who upset the hottest player on the tour currently, Petra Kvitova 7-6, 7-6 in 91 minutes. Just two days ago, Kvitova defeated the new world #1 Kim Clijsters in the finals of the WTA Paris Open for her second title of the year.

Mirza's win - her fourth consecutive over her Uzbek opponent - earns her 70 ranking points which will likely move her to around #120 in the new rankings next week. Mirza and Morita have played once before in 2007 when the Indian won in straight sets.

The Renaissance of Rastogi

Ask anyone for the current top Indian tennis players and you are likely to get one of the following answers - Somdev Devvarman, Sania Mirza, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi or Rohan Bopanna. Some might even mention Yuki Bhambri, the 19 year old former world #1 junior, who is now trying to break into the professional ranks.

No one would likely mention Karan Rastogi. But while no one was watching, this 24 year old Mumbai lad has become India’s #2 singles player on the men’s side in a span of 16 months that saw him go from unranked in October 2009 to a place in the top 300 in the world rankings for the first time this week, up 44 positions to #284.

Rastogi has not exactly bolted out of the blue. He reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open Junior Championships in 2004 and was ranked #4 in the junior world rankings that same year. Within a couple of years, he started having modest success on the lower rung ITF Futures circuit and reached #329 in the rankings in June 2006. But soon, poor form and injuries began to take their toll. In 2008, he suffered a severe back injury which required surgery and meant that he would not play competitive tennis for 16 months – half-a-lifetime in the career of a tennis player. Having to start from scratch without a ranking or a sponsor, Rastogi pursued his comeback earnestly and started trotting the globe again in October 2009 in search of valuable ranking points and match fitness. He struggled in the initial months – unable to string together enough wins to give him confidence that he would be able to compete again with the world’s best. However in March 2010, things finally started coming together again. He battled through five opponents to win the ITF Futures title in India, including three matches that went to three sets for his first title in his comeback. In May, he reached the final of back-to-back Futures events in India – the results good enough to put him back into the top 500 in the rankings. Rastogi struck another purple patch in October last year when he reached back-to-back Futures finals in Nigeria, wining one of them for his second title in 5 months. Those results put him inside the world’s top 330, nearing his career best ranking from 2006.

Last month, Rastogi was beaten in the first round of qualifying at the ATP Chennai Open and in the second round of the Singapore Challenger but a week ago, he went on to win another Futures title in Cambodia – which has now seen his ranking move to his new career best of #284.

Inspite of all the hard work an success, Rastogi is yet to receive the recognition that he has toiled so hard for. He was not given a wild card for the main draw of the ATP Chennai Open and instead had to play the qualifying draw. Organizers chose instead to give the wild card to Rohan Bopanna, at best a part-time singles player, as a reward for his Davis Cup win over world #75 Ricarod Mello, of Brazil in the deciding match of the Davis Cup tie in September – that win put India into the prestigious World Group for the seond year running. And it is unlikely that Rastogi will get a chance to play singles when Inda takes on defending chapions Serbia in March with Bopanna once again to likely get the nod.

But Rastogi is not complaining. He will continue to focus on himself and his game in the coming months and aim to break into the top 200 by end of the year. That will enable him to play the qualifying draws of the Grand Slams as well. And we at Tennis Chronicles will be there - following him all year round as he continues his journey on the professional circuit.

Sania loses; Joachim Johansson returns

India's Sania Mirza has lost in the first round of the qualifying draw for the WTA event in Pattaya. Mirza was beaten by Galina Voskoboeva 6-4, 6-4 for the second time in three career meetings. The Russian ranked #560 in the world, did not play in 2010 after the French Open due to injury and is now trying to get back to her career best rank of #94.

In the ATP Challenger event in Italy, Sweden's Joachim Johansson has been granted a wild card. The former world #9 attempted a comeback from injury in 2009 but has played only one event in all of 2010 - Sweden's Davis Cup tie in March. Another wild card entrant in the same event is former world #12 Dominik Hrbaty. The 33 year old Slovak is now ranked #459 in the world.

In the latest ATP rankings, Somdev Devvarman moves to a new career high ranking of #80 after reaching the final of the SA Open in Johannesburg. Also, India's third ranked player Vishnu Vardhan moves up 36 positions to #354 after the points of reaching the finals of the ITF Cambodia F1 Futures were added to his tally.

Finally, a little known 16 year old Indian Ramkumar Ramanathan has won two matches and is now one win away from qualifying for the ITF Futures event in Spain beng played on clay.Ramanathan beat 16th seed Toby Martin of Great Britain 6-2, 6-4 in the first round and then beat Spaniard Carlos Tajes Alonso 6-0, 6-0 and now plays 8th seed Marco Bortolotti of Italy in the final round of qualifying.

Somedev reaches semis of ATP South African Open

India's Somdev Devvarman advanced to his second ever semi-final on the ATP Tour with a 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 victory over local favourite Rik De Voest at the SA Tennis Open in Johannesburg. The Commonwealth gold medallist has been this far in an ATP event only once before when he reached the finals of the ATP event in Chennai.
Devvarman's opponent in the semis will be another South African Izak van der Merwe . The 170th ranked wild card entrant defeated Simon Greul of Germany 7-6 (5), 6-2. The 170th-ranked Van der Merwe broke his opponent twice in the second set to win at Montecasino.

Devvarman reached the quarter-finals here last year and besides defending those points, he will gain an additional 45 ranking points atleast which will move him back close to his career best ranking of #94. A win in the semis tomorrow will assure him of a new career best ranking in the late 70s next week.

Meanwhile in the ITF Futures in Cambodia, top seed Karan Rastogi beat compatriot Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan 6-1, 6-0 to advance to the finals where he will face another Indian Vijau Sundar Prashanth, who beat Arata Onozawa, of Japan, 6-2, 7-5. The result will ensure that Rastogi will move into the top 300 in the world for the first time in his career when the points gets added to his ranking. A commendabl effort for someone who was not ranked at all just 16 months ago due to injury.

Pulling down our heroes

Novak Djokovic and Kim Clijsters were the winners of the just concluded Australian Open ; Djokovic winning his second major in Melbourne and Clijsters winning her second consecutive major (half way to her Grand-Mother-Slam) – but it was China’s Na Li who captured the imagination of the tennis world as the year’s first Grand Slam went down to the wire. Li had been to the semi-finals of a major event only once previously (in Melbourne last year) but came into this year’s tournament having won the Sydney WTA event, a pivotal tune-up for the women, beating Clijsters in the final, and headed to Melbourne as a dark horse. In previous years, her ball-striking ability has got as much attention as her inability to play her best consistently with the top women at the key events. And while she enhanced her giant killer reputation with wins over higher ranked Victoria Azarenka in the fourth round and top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki in the semi-finals (where she saved a match point), it was her interviews on the court and in the press room that warmed the hearts of the tennis media and fans worldwide. Her candid and funny responses in broken English touched upon various aspects of her personal life – from her husband's snoring habits to her motivation when she was down a set in the semis.

But apparently, being the first player from your country to reach the world's top 10 and also the first player from your continent to reach a Grand Slam final isn't enough to please everyone back home. National pride has turned into a rally of abuse after it was reported that Li asked the chair umpire during the finals to tell the Chinese fans to stop teaching her how to play tennis and also repeated the same in her press conference later. Her remarks have led to a flurry of negative remarks on the micro-blogging Twitter while the state run Global Times newspaper reported, “While being a Chinese, Li asked a foreigner (British umpire) to demand the Chinese spectators stop shouting, making her just like an outsider.” This is not the first time that the tattooed Li has been the subject of controversy back home. In 2008, she demanded independence from the Chinese tennis federation - choosing to determine her own schedule of events, hire her own coaching team and also retain a larger part of her earnings than earlier permitted – cultivating the image of a rare rebel in the tightly controlled Chinese sporting scene.

This phenomenon is not exactly new in Asia. A few years ago, when Sania Mirza was making waves on the WTA tour as she rose to a career high #27 in the rankings and going where no Indian woman had ever tread before, the Indian was subject to several backlashes back home. Controversies engulfed her, ranging from showing disrespect to the Indian flag, to Muslim clerics objecting to her playing in short skirts and her views on pre-marital sex - and Mirza was at the receiving end of heavy criticism – so much so that she decided at one point not to play in India's only WTA event as she did not want to deal with these elements.

As athletes, Li & Mirza have proven to be path breakers – symbols that with the right talent & right opportunities, Asian women can compete with the world's best on the tennis court. But they also stand as a symbol of something more. Li as a symbol that it is possible for Chinese athletes to branch out from the their tight fisted federations and achieve success . Mirza, a symbol of the modern Muslim woman, one with the ability to speak her mind and stand independently on and off the court. It is these virtues which they stand for that the authorities in their respective countries are not exactly gung-ho about. As long as the backlash remains contained among the few who have a vested interest in promoting their own propaganda, things should remain fine. But when this mixes with the disappointment of the fans when the very same athletes fail to maintain the high standards that they have set, it becomes a potent & dangerous combination. The two countries have far too few sporting women role models but far too many people willing to pull these national heroes down instead of celebrating them.

For my earlier article, visit my Facebook page and click on the 'LIKE" icon to ensure you receive the updates.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Haresh-Ramchandanis-Tennis-Chronicles/106612526073357