Maharashtra Herald, November 14, 2007
Suhrid Barua
suhridb@sakalherald.com
suhridb@sakalherald.com
PUNE: The ITF tourneys are often considered the breeding ground for the new Sanias to take shape. And on Tuesday, two Indian players -Sandhya Nagraj and Parul Goswami showed enough grit to suggest that they can be the rising stars of Indian tennis while notching eye-catching victories in the $25,000 NECC-ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Deccan Gymkhana tennis courts on Tuesday.
Playing against 810-ranked Varatchaya Wongteanchai of Thailand, Sandhya made the right noises breaking Varatchaya’s serve in the first game. She completely lost focus after that, losing the next six games to surrender the opening set 1-6.
However, the 591-ranked Indian was a transformed player in the second set. Exuding solid baseline play, she pulled off two service breaks to run away with the second set 6-1.
There was a spring in the steps of Sandhya after her fierce second set fightback. Towering over Varatchaya in the deciding third set, she unleashed stinging winners, breaking her serve in the first, third and fifth games to close out the match at 6-1.
Wildcard Parul Goswami started her match against Jung-Yoon Shin of Korea on a jittery note, conceding serve in the sixth game to hand the opening set 6-3. But the 961-ranked Indian was quick to rebound as she broke Shin’s serve twice to take the second set 6-4. Parul was beginning to look more solid now with her groundstrokes.
The diminutive Indian produced a powerful double-handed backhand winner in the third game to effect the decisive break and assumed control. She forced Shin to drop serve again in the fifth game before wrapping it up at 6-2.
Meanwhile, day two witnessed two upsets. Seventh seeded Nungnadda Wannasuk of Thailand was sent packing by Ukraine’s Katerina Polunina in straight sets 6-4, 6-1. Fourth seed Tara Iyer of India went down to veteran Indian Rushmi Chakravarthi 4-6, 2-6.
Second seeded Sandy Gumulya of Indonesia took India’s Poojashree Venkatesha to the cleaners with a facile 6-1, 6-1 triumph. Third seeded Neha Uberoi edged out Tanvi Shah 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in a nervy three-setter. Fifth seeded Nina Bratchikova of Russia halted the campaign of India’s Ankita Bhambri 6-2, 6-3. Actually, Bhambri sisters capped off a forgettable day with Sanaa Bhambri earlier suffering a 0-6, 1-6 drubbing at the hands of Korea’s Kyung-Yee Chae.
Sixth-seeded Silivia Disderi of Italy walloped Shalini Sahoo of India 7-5. 6-2. Another Indian, Sonal Phadki had enough in her tank before outduelling countrymate Prerana-Mythri Appineni 6-1, 6-7, 7-5. Eight-seeded Isha Lakhani of India blanked fellow Indian Ashmitha Easwaramurthi 6-0, 6-0.
Playing against 810-ranked Varatchaya Wongteanchai of Thailand, Sandhya made the right noises breaking Varatchaya’s serve in the first game. She completely lost focus after that, losing the next six games to surrender the opening set 1-6.
However, the 591-ranked Indian was a transformed player in the second set. Exuding solid baseline play, she pulled off two service breaks to run away with the second set 6-1.
There was a spring in the steps of Sandhya after her fierce second set fightback. Towering over Varatchaya in the deciding third set, she unleashed stinging winners, breaking her serve in the first, third and fifth games to close out the match at 6-1.
Wildcard Parul Goswami started her match against Jung-Yoon Shin of Korea on a jittery note, conceding serve in the sixth game to hand the opening set 6-3. But the 961-ranked Indian was quick to rebound as she broke Shin’s serve twice to take the second set 6-4. Parul was beginning to look more solid now with her groundstrokes.
The diminutive Indian produced a powerful double-handed backhand winner in the third game to effect the decisive break and assumed control. She forced Shin to drop serve again in the fifth game before wrapping it up at 6-2.
Meanwhile, day two witnessed two upsets. Seventh seeded Nungnadda Wannasuk of Thailand was sent packing by Ukraine’s Katerina Polunina in straight sets 6-4, 6-1. Fourth seed Tara Iyer of India went down to veteran Indian Rushmi Chakravarthi 4-6, 2-6.
Second seeded Sandy Gumulya of Indonesia took India’s Poojashree Venkatesha to the cleaners with a facile 6-1, 6-1 triumph. Third seeded Neha Uberoi edged out Tanvi Shah 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in a nervy three-setter. Fifth seeded Nina Bratchikova of Russia halted the campaign of India’s Ankita Bhambri 6-2, 6-3. Actually, Bhambri sisters capped off a forgettable day with Sanaa Bhambri earlier suffering a 0-6, 1-6 drubbing at the hands of Korea’s Kyung-Yee Chae.
Sixth-seeded Silivia Disderi of Italy walloped Shalini Sahoo of India 7-5. 6-2. Another Indian, Sonal Phadki had enough in her tank before outduelling countrymate Prerana-Mythri Appineni 6-1, 6-7, 7-5. Eight-seeded Isha Lakhani of India blanked fellow Indian Ashmitha Easwaramurthi 6-0, 6-0.
Results: Singles First round: Katerina Polunina (Ukr) bt (7) Nungnadda Wannasuk (Thai) 6-4, 6-1, Rushmi Chakravarthi (Ind) bt (4) Tara Iyer (Ind) 6-4, 6-2, Alexandra Panova (Rus) bt Kelsey Sundaram (US) 6-2, 6-2, (6) Silvia Disderi (Ita) bt Shalini Sahoo (Ind) 7-5, 6-2, Ling Zhang (HK) bt Kumari-Shweta Solanki (Ind) 7-6, 6-0, Julia Parasyuk (Rus) bt Adnya Naik (Ind) 6-3, 6-3, Parul Goswami (Ind) bt Jung-Yoon Shin (Kor) 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, Kyung-Yee Chae (Kor) bt Sanaa Bhambri (Ind) 6-0, 6-1, Alexandra Kolesnichenko (Uzb) bt Asha Nanda Kumar (Ind) 6-4, 6-1, (8) Isha Lakhani (Ind) bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi (Ind) 6-0, 6-0, Sandhya Nagraj (Ind) bt Varatchaya Wongteanchai (Thai) 1-6, 6-1, 6-1, (2) Sandy Gumulya (Ind) bt Poojashree Venkatesha (Ind) 6-1, 6-1, Sonal Phadke (Ind) bt Prerana-Mythri Appineni (Ind) 6-1, 6-7, 7-5, (5) (5) Nina Bratchikova (Rus) bt Ankita Bhambri (Ind) 6-2, 6-3.
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