Hasko to meet Spottl in final

By Kalyan Ashok

BANGALORE, JAN. 26. The high flying Croatian qualifier, Ivan Cerovic was finally grounded by the consistent contender and the sixth seed, Juraj Hasko of Slovakia in the third $10,000 ITF Futures Tennis championship at the Kingfisher-McDowell Stadium here on Friday. Hasko set up a title clash with the second seed, Martin Spottl of Austria.

In the two lop-sided semifinal contests, Hasko halted Cerovic at 6-2, 6-3 in 67 minutes and Spottl outplayed the fourth seed, Rik de Voest, 6-3, 6-3 in 75 minutes.

The 23-year old Hasko is not a newcomer to this country, he played in the Futures Circuit last season, making the final at Mumbai. The Bratsilava-born stocky youngman is pretty solid in the back court where for hours on he can stay glued grinding away relentlessly. This is what he did against Cerovic, banging back steady returns and an impatient Cerovic, came the worse in rallies.

Cerovic's big weapon is his serve and he was nowhere his best in that department on Friday and often had a few problems with his first serve and the pressure of playing his first Futures semifinals also seemed to weigh heavily on him as he mishit too frequently, without really getting behind.

Hasko got right off the blocks, breaking Cerovic in the second game and winning the set without much trouble, breaking Cerovic again in the eighth game (6-2).

The second set saw a better display from Cerovic who stayed in the fight, volleying away some good winners and after Hasko broke him in the fourth for a 3-2 lead, Cerovic hit back in the fifth game and was set to level at 3 all, but Hasko, who was hitting deep, snuffed his opponent's hopes of a come back with another quick break in the sixth game for a 4-2 lead.

From then on, Hasko simply held firm despite a game bid by Cerovic and prevailed 6-3 to reach the final: a big progress indeed for the Slovak after a first round loss at Jorhat and a semifinal spot in Kolkata. In fact, he lost to Spottl at Kolkata and the re-match here should be daunting prospect for Hasko, ranked No. 7 at home.

``It's nice to be in the final, but I don't want to think about it. Spottl has such a good serve. It depends on how I play that tomorrow,'' said Hasko after the victory.

The stylish Spottl is certainly a cut above the rest with his big serve and fiery forehand. The Austrian also has an explosive service return and is quick on his feet. The easy victory over Rik de Voest saw Spottl at his best. He served as many as half a dozen aces and showed no let up in his sustained onslaught against a wavering South African, who was a bundle of nerves at the net. Once Spottl had neutralised de Voest main weapon, his serve, it was fairly smooth run for the Austrian.

In the first set, Spottl was down on break point at 30-40, in the sixth game after a double fault, but forced a deuce with a smash and with de Voest hitting wide and then netting a low volley, Spottl held the serve for a 3-3 score. He then forced his first break in the seventh game where he had de Voest down at love 30, with a volley winner and a superb service return. The South African belted two backhand hits out to drop the serve. De Voest made a determined bid in the eighth game, forcing his rival to deuce thrice before Spottl held serve with a neat backhand volley. He then struck back for his set winning break in the ninth and took it with a big forehand hit which streaked past the South African.

Spottl took the second set with an early break in the second game. Trailing 15-40, de Voest pulled to 30-40 with Spottl slamming overt the sidelines, but the South African dropped the serve with a double fault, netting the first serve and incredibly firing the second serve over the baseline.

De Voest, then did his best to crack his rival in the seventh game in which he had a break point, before Spottl held the serve again with another of his many forehand winners after three deuces. Spottl, in command with a 5-2 lead, took the set and match at 6-3.

The victory in singles today puts Spottl in line for a double crown. He made the doubles final on Thursday, partnering Prahlad Srinath. The duo meet Manoj Mahadevan and Rishi Sridhar in the final.

``It will be good if I win the doubles as well and as far as singles is concerned, unless I beat myself, I don't see myself losing,'' said the cocky Austrian, who has set himself a big goal-of breaking into the top 100 by the end of the season.

Spottl's cash stolen: Despite his success on court, Spottl met with a misfortune off it. The Austrian complained that $700 had been stolen from his room in a well known Hotel on the Palace Road here. ``That's quite lot of money for me and I am practically wiped out and hope the hotel management and the authorities do something for me,'' said Spottl.

The local police, however, said that no formal complaint had so far been lodged by either the player or the hotel.

lThe results: singles (semifinals): Martin Spottl (Aut) bt Rik de Voest (RSA) 6-3, 6-3; Juraj Hasko (Svk) bt Ivan Cerovic (Cro) 6- 2, 6-3.

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