It's Sonal vs the two Radhika's

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 5. She has been playing quite well of late, and it will be interesting to see whether the top-seeded Sonal Phadke is able to cap her fine run in the $5000 ITF women's circuit Masters event at the DLTA Complex here.

The 18-year-old Sonal had shown her mettle in winning the title in the Masters of a similar circuit at the same venue, in May last year. She has also been playing consistently well in the $10,000 tournaments at home. However, Sonal will have to contend with Radhika Tulpule and Radhika Mandke this time, as both have asserted their form with a title each in the last two legs in Bangalore and Mumbai.

In a tough first round, Sonal will be meeting her friend from Mumbai, Liza Pereira who had pushed her to a second- set tie- break in the quarterfinal last week.

Radhika Tulpule has been playing the circuit despite an injury, perhaps to emphasise her availability for the ten- nation Fed Cup Asia-Oceania group `I' competition to be held in Chinese Taipei from April 9.

With Nirupama Vaidyanathan busy in the big league, and scheduled to play a $75,000 event in Dubai shortly, the rest of the prominent Indian women have been keeping themselves busy in Australia.

Manisha Malhotra, Sai Jayalakshmy and Rushmi Chakravarthi have had a reasonably good run in the $25,000 event last week in Bendigo, Australia, with Manisha making the doubles semifinal in the company of Nadia Johnston of Australia, beating the other two Indians in the quarterfinals.

With Jyotsna Vasisht trying her hand in China and Chinese Taipei, with the coaching support of Kawaljeet Singh, the only top Indian player missing from action has been Chandigarh's Shruti Dhawan who was part of the Indian team in the Asia Cup in November.

There is no point blaming the weird situation when the Indian women have not had anything in the last few months in terms of tournaments except for the present $5000 circuit. A player of Shruti's calibre should have found her way to the tournaments to keep herself in the fray for the Fed Cup selection, and for the busy season ahead. Or she could have at least kept herself match- fit by playing the current circuit, which is mainly meant to serve such a purpose.

Anyway, it should be intersting to see whether the selectors take note of the efforts of the players in the $5000 circuit - in which the Masters event alone offers WTA points - when they meet next week to finalise the teams.

Meanwhile, once she pulls through in the first round, Sonal is likely to meet the fourth-seeded Nina Wennerstrom of Sweden in the semifinals. The third-seeded Radhika Tulpule meets Vishnu Preetam Mahalingam in the first round, and the second- seeded Radhika Mandke will be challenged by Yamini Thukkaiandi.

Among others, Archana Venkataraman who won the title in the first leg is missing from the action, and Nandita Chandrasekar had opted to attend her examinations after reaching the final of the second leg in Bangalore.

Liza Pereira and Sheetal Goutham have a good chance to make it three in a row of doubles titles following their triumph in the last two weeks. They had lost only to the eventual champions, Sai and Rushmi, in the semifinals of the first leg in Chennai.

The doubles matches have been scheduled for Tuesday.

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Section  : Sport
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