Sunil Kumar pulls off an upset

LONDON, JULY 3. The country's most talented teenaged tennis player, the 1999 National champion Sunil Kumar, played one of the finest competitive matches any Indian has played in the Wimbledon junior championship since Leander Paes won the title in 1990 as he stormed past the eighth seeded German Florian Meyer 7-5, 7-5 in the second round on Tuesday.

More than the mere fact that he beat a highly rated player who figured in the quarterfinals of the French Open junior event last month, what stood out was Sunil Kumar's fighting spirit and his ability to pull out big shots when in trouble.

The Indian teenager started well, opening up a 4-1 lead in the first set, but he saw the German battle back to 4-4. However, Sunil Kumar set up a setpoint with a backhand return winner in the 12th game and then closed out the set with a forehand winner.

The Punjab left-hander was, however, pushed to a corner in the second set as Meyer ran up a 4-1 lead with two breaks. From there, Sunil Kumar played his finest tennis of the match, serving with power and intelligence, chipping and charging on the opponent's service games and hitting some lovely passes.

Meyer served for the second set at 5-4 when Sunil stepped on the pedal and then raced to the finish, setting up a matchpoint with a forehand crosscourt pass. The German double faulted to hand the match out to the Indian.

Sunil Kumar will play K. Skupski of Britain in the third round. Skupski, a qualifier like the Indian, surprised the ninth seed, R. Soderling of Sweden 6-4, 6-7, 6-3.

Late on Monday evening, Vijay Amritraj's son Prakash went down in three sets to B. Baker of Britain in the first round. The latter won 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

- Our Tennis Correspondent

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