Champions make a fresh start . . . don't look for the missing players !

Everyone aspires, but few achieve. The Fenesta National tennis championship had looked quite open, but it was the top-seeded Mohit Mayur and the defending champion Prerna Bhambri who walked away with the trophy and an equal prize purse of Rs.150,000.

After being based in Spain and competing in tournaments in the tough European circuit, the 20-year-old Mohit had grappled with a back injury. He did not have much to speak for in the four tournaments that he competed in the ITF men’s circuit this season, in which he had failed to qualify for the main event in two.

It was decided that he should train with former Davis Cup coach Nandan Bal in Pune for a few weeks in preparation for the National championship. One of the best coaches in the country, who has guided many players over the years, Nandan was able to tune the game of the bespectacled Mohit nicely to help the lad peak at the right time.

One thing that Nandan did was to ensure that Mohit would retain his attacking instinct rather than become defensive. If you want to make the jump to the next level, you just cannot afford to hesitate with your serve or strokes. You have to go for it, with confidence and good technique.

It had looked that Arjuna Kadhe, who partnered Mohit for the doubles title, would pose a serious challenge, but he was unable to rise to the occasion. Mohit served strong and stroked with intelligence, unleashing the passing shots with effortless ease, to outplay the 19-year-old Arjun 6-3, 6-1.

Prerna Bhambri had been struggling with a shoulder injury, and thus chose to relaunch her career in the National championship. She was not at her best in terms of the quality of her game, but there was no dearth of determination.

In contrast, the top-seeded Shweta Rana, who has been playing regularly in the international circuit had put too much pressure on herself, and thus was not able to face the challenge with equanimity at the crunch. Prerna won the final 7-5, 6-2 in about two hours, and there was a lot of excitement, particularly in the first set.

Shweta was playing the tournament to win it. She was perhaps more worried about the result rather than the process. Yet, she had done very well to win the doubles title with Olympian Rushmi Chakravarthi.

For coach Todd Clark who has been training Shweta at the Harvest Tennis Academy in Jassowal, Ludhiana, for about three years, it was an encouraging sign that she managed to win a title from ten finals this season, in singles and doubles. Nothing teaches like experience !  Shweta had beaten a string of good players, but lost to the best. She had lost the women’s final in the national championship in 2007 as well.

Hardeep Singh Sandhu from Punjab and Sai Samhitha from Tamil Nadu won the junior boys and girls titles respectively, to fetch themselves a minor launching pad.

Good training and quality competition is the only way for progress. If most of the leading Indian players get it at the international level, it will be unfair to expect them to honour the national championship, even though most of them may have never won the national title.

Of course, with varying views from different sides, this topic deserves to be addressed properly.

For the time being, let us appreciate the champions, rather than look for the missing players !

Natasha Palha loses semifinals in Egypt

The fourth-seeded Natasha Palha lost 2-6, 3-6 to the fifth-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium in the semifinals of the $10,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

The 19-year-old Goan girl who had a made a final earlier this year in Chennai, had beaten the seventh-seeded Valeria Prosperi of Italy in the quarterfinals.

Vishnu Vardhan loses semifinals, Jeevan and Ranjeet quarterfinals in doubles

The second-seeded Vishnu Vardhan and Hiroki Kondo of Japan lost 6-1, 3-6, 10-12 to Boma Coric and Dino Marcan of Croatia in the doubles semifinals of the $15,000 + H men’s ITF Futures tennis tournament in Lagos, Nigeria.

In the quarterfinals, Vishnu and partner had outplayed Pekun Alkingbade and Kehinde Alade of Nigeria 6-1, 6-1.

However, the third-seeded Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and V. M. Ranjeet were beaten 3-6, 6-3, 10-6 by Sunday Maku and Lawal Shehu of Nigeria in the quarterfinals.

Paramveer Singh Bajwa loses semifinals in ITF junior tournament in Colombo

Paramveer Singh Bajwa was beaten 6-3, 6-2 by Nishangan Nadaraja of Sri Lanka in the semifinals of the ITF grade-4 junior tennis tournament in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, Issha Budwal and Praneetha Sathishkumar made the girls doubles final with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Xenia Prokopchuk of Ukraine and Angelia Raman. The duo was scheduled to face Khim Iglupas and Roxanne May Resma of the Philippines.

Dhruthi Venugopal loses semifinals in ITF junior grade-3 tournament in Kuching, Malaysia

The sixth-seeded Dhruthi Venugopal was beaten 6-4, 6-0 by the second-seeded Yijia Shao of China, in the 22^nd Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup ITF junior grade -3 tennis tournament in Kuching Malaysia.

However, Dhruthi and Vasanti Shinde went down fighting 7-6(2), 3-6, 7-10 to the top-seeded Kim Dabin of Korea and Tamachan Momkoonthod of Thailand in the doubles quarterfinals.

The results:

Boys (second round): Daniel Nolan (Aus) bt Sasha Kingsley 6-1, 6-2.

First round: Atikan Juprang (Tha) bt Kunaal Namashivaya 6-0, 6-0; Sasha Kingsley bt Marco Danielo Geronimo (Mas) 6-1, 6-1.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Francois Kellerman and Okkie Kellerman (RSA) w.o. Nawakarn Khunjan (Tha) and Kunaal Namashivaya.

First round: Sherwin Foo (Sin) and Hua-Chen Yu (Tpe) bt Ranveer Singh Ryan (Mas) and Sasha Kingsley 6-1, 6-2.

Girls (semifinals): Yijia Shao (Chn) bt Dhruthi Venugopal 6-4, 6-0.

Quarterfinals: Dhruthi Venugopal bt Claire Yoonkee Choi Spackman (Hkg) 6-3, 6-0.

Pre-quarterfinals: Julie Noe (Den) bt Vasanti Shinde 6-0, 7-6(4); Dhruthi Venugopal bt Yi-Chi Ma (Tep) 6-2, 6-3.

Second round: Dhruthi Venugopal bt Milana Lysova (Rus) 6-2, 6-0; Vasanti Shinde bt Ashley Kei Yim (Sin) 6-0, 6-1.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Dabin Kim and Tamachan Momkoonthod (Tha) bt Vasanti Shinde and Dhruthi Venugopal 6-7(2), 6-3, 10-7.

Pre-quarterfinals: Vasanti and Dhruthi bt aslina Chuaan Ping (Mas) and Bunyawi thamchaiwat (Tha) 6-3, 6-1.