Karishma shows Sheetal the door

By K. Keerthivasan

CHENNAI, SEPT. 5. The top half of the draw in the Indian Oil Servo ITF $10000 tennis tournament became bereft of seeded players, with the latest casualty being Sheetal Goutham. The seventh-seeded Sheetal bowed out 6-7 (1-7), 2-6 to the wild card Karishma Patel in the second round at the Gymkhana club courts here on Wednesday. Due to overnight showers, all the singles' matches had a delayed start at 1.30 p.m.

Starting well, Sheetal broke Karishma's serve in the second game to go up 2-0, but Karishma came back strongly, breaking the Delhi girl in the third game. From that stage, the game went on serves till the twelfth. Then ensued the tiebreaker in which the wild card blew away Sheetal conceding just one point.

Gaining in confidence, Karishma went on the rampage in the second set. All Sheetal was able to do was hold her serve in the second game, and break Karishma's serve in the fifth game. Karishma, then, won the next five games to finish the second set and the match in an hour and 16 minutes. Sheetal attributed her defeat to poor court coverage.

The fourth seed Sonal Phadke had no problems in beating Nandita Chandrasekar 6-1, 6-3. Hitting double-fisted backhand winners at will, Sonal was at no point of time in major trouble in the first set. However, it was only in the second that Nandita offered little resistance. With the drop shots working to good effect and back hand down the line winners too falling in place, Nandita broke Sonal's serve in the fourth and sixth games. But, Sonal's all-court game and experience finally prevailed as she broke Nandita's serve in the ninth game to take the set and the match.

However, the match that had a bit of excitement, quality and attracted audience attention was the one between Radhika Tulpule, the fifth seed, and Greece's Christiana Zachariadou. The match had long rallies, good volleys, and also effective groundstrokes from both players.

In the first set, Radhika broke the German's serve in the third game. Zachariadou then broke back in the sixth game when Radhika double faulted. A backhand winner, followed by an approach volley in the tenth game saw Radhika hitting the ball into the net that gave the German the first set.

The steely performer that the girl from Maharashtra is, she hit back in the second set with solid groundstrokes. Radhika also hit a couple of attractive passing shots. The two traded breaks till the third game. The German's concentration began to wither in the fifth game when she shouted when a close line call went against her. But, Radhika kept her cool to break Zachariadou's serve in the seventh game to go up 4-3. Radhika then held her serve and broke Zachariadou in the next game to take the second set by which time the German was apparently feeling unwell. Radhika was leading 4-0 in the decider when Zachariadou conceded the match due to stomach cramps.

Eighth seed Archana Venkataraman had it easy in a 6-0, 6-1 win over Thailand's Pachaya Loasirichon 6-2, 6-0. Giant killer Ipek Senoglu raced past Liza Pereira 6-0, 6-1. In a match involving two qualifiers, Nischella Reddy defeated Radhika Mandke 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 while second seed Rushmi Chakravarthi trounced Tara Kanbargimath 6-1, 6-2. Ankita Bhambri, who had a tough match on Tuesday against Megha Vakharia, found Geeta Manohar too easy to handle as she posted a 6-1, 6-4 victory.

The results: second round: (Indians unless otherwise stated): Sonal Phadke bt Nandita Chandrasekar 6-1, 6-3; Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Tara Kanbargimath 6-1, 6-2; Karishma Patel bt Sheetal Goutham 7-6 (7-1), 6-2; Ankita Bhambri bt Geeta Manohar 6-1, 6-4; Radhika Tulpule bt Christiana Zachariadou (Greece) 4-6, 6-3, 4-0 (conceded); Archana Venkataraman bt Pachaya Loasirichon (Thailand) 6-0, 6-1, Nischella Reddy bt Radhika Mandke 3-6, 6-4, 6-2; Ipek Senoglu bt Liza Pereira 6-0, 6-1.

Doubles: second round: Sai Jayalakshmi- Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Rati Kumar-Lata Assudani 6-1, 6-0.

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