Indians fail to grab final berth

NEW DELHI, MAY 12. The Indian boys' and girls' teams failed to clear the last hurdle in the Asia-Oceania World Youth Cup tennis tournament in Jakarta.

The boys lost 1-2 to the fourth-seeded Chinese Taipei and the girls went down by a similar margin to Thailand, in the quarterfinals, and thus failed to grab a berth for the World Youth Cup final to be held in Chile.

Left-hander R. Arun Prakash and Sania Mirza won their singles matches to keep the hopes alive for the Indian boys' and girls' teams. However, in the decisive doubles the Indian players seemed to lack the energy as they lost without offering any resistance.

The fact that both the Indian teams depended on the same set of two players did not help in fulfilling the aspirations of the teams. In contrast, the opponents pressed into service a third player in doubles with good effect, as they did not drop many games, let alone a set.

Having finished No.2 in their groups, following defeats in the first of three league matches each, both the Indian teams ran into better teams that were on a high after topping their groups with undefeated records.

Quite interestingly, Korea, Chinese Taipei and Australia clinched the qualifiers' spot, in both the boys' and girls' sections. The fourth slot went to Hong Kong and Thailand in the boys' and girls' sections respectively.

The results (quarterfinals):

Boys: Chinese Taipei bt India 2-1 (Yao- Lun Chang lost to R. Arun Prakash 0-6, 2-6; Tai-Wei Liu bt Karan Rastogi 6-0, 6-4; Yao-Lun Chang and Meng-Hua Lee bt Arun Prakash and Karan Rastogi 6-2, 6- 3).

Girls: Thailand bt India 2-1 (Montinee Tangphong bt Ankita Bhambri 1-6, 3-6; Pichaya Lao Sirichon lost to Sania Mirza 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 1-6; Montinee Tangphong and Thassha Vitayaviroj bt Ankita Bhambri and Saniz Mirza 6-3, 6-3).

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