Rishi despatches Ghouse with ease

By S. Dinakar

PUNE, OCT. 29. There were quite a few familiar faces in the busy Deccan Gymkhana market place during a typically pleasant Pune evening. It was a group of Indian tennis players, participating in the MSLTA-ITF men's Futures tournament, cooling off on the eve of the main draw competition.

After exchanging pleasantries with them, the conversation quickly shifted to the interesting first round duels and at the top of the list on Day One was the tussle between the sixth seeded Mustafa Ghouse and the unseeded but dangerous Rishi Sridhar.

One of the players quickly pointed out,``Rishi can hurt Mustafa if he feels good.'' He had a point too for much of Rishi's game revolved on confidence and rhythm ...brilliant one day, uninspiring the next.

Well, it was the right kind of day for Rishi at the Deccan Gymkhana Courts, here, on Monday. He `felt good', served well, returned with precision, moved fluently and the result was a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Ghouse, the lone upset of the day.

However, Rishi's Chennai-mate Vinod Sridhar, came within a whisker of knocking out second seeded Eyal Erlich (Israel), leading 4-1 in the decider before eventually going down 5-7, 7-5, 5-7, the gruelling contest lasting 122 action-packed minutes.

A brave performance for most part from the hard- hitting Vinod, but then he should have closed out the contest in the third set, especially with his opponent clearly wilting under the heat.

Back to Rishi. The Southern Railway employee has been hampered in the past few months by an injury to his right wrist. So much so that he has been forced to change the wristy nature of his play. He now puts more shoulder into his serves, and hits his forehands with a straighter arm rather than rolling them over and straining his wrist further in the process.

Ironically, the match began on the wrong note for the 23-year-old Rishi. He was broken by Ghouse in the first game of the match. However, the Chennai player broke back immediately, stringing together a few sizzling forehand returns.

Ghouse has a big serve and realising this, Rishi had practised with Rohan Bopanna, another huge server, before the start of the contest. The preparation helped for sure.

The games went with serves until Ghouse faltered again in the crucial tenth. With Rishi attacking his serves, Ghouse was under intense pressure to hold, and ended up serving three double faults.

Sensing a kill, Rishi turned on the heat in the second set, moving up to volley more on his own serves, and not making things any easier at all for Ghouse. Eventually, Rishi broke Ghouse in the sixth game of the second, drilling in forehand winners, and then held without too many problems to clinch the match 6-4, 6-3.

It was a creditable victory for Rishi, coached by Rajiv Naidu at the Match Point Tennis Academy in Chennai. ``I needed this win. The past few months have been trying for me,'' he later said.

Sadly, Vinod Sridhar, who battled with spirit and passion against a much higher ranked opponent, did not have a happy tale to recount. Instead, it was a story of missed opportunities.

The left-handed Vinod matched Erlich stroke for stroke in the first set, before the canny Israeli, stepping up a notch, achieved the important break in the eleventh game and then held his serve to win the first set 7-5.

Vinod can be quite a handful once he gets his double- handed back-hand working and the Chennai player surged to a 4-1 lead in the second, out-hitting the Israeli.

Erlich is a tenacious customer though and he clawed his way back, breaking Vinod in the ninth game. However, as the set entered the climactic stages, Vinod found the right answers on Erlich's serves in the 12th, to take the contest to the third set.

Vinod had a head start again in the decider, with Erlich failing to hold in the fourth game. The Israeli, struggling under the afternoon heat, was beginning to lose his temper too and the odds were in Vinod's favour.

It was at this stage that Vinod's relative inexperience surfaced, with the Indian, serving at 4-2, trying to rush through points, in a hurry to finish things off, and making unforced errors in the process.

``I should have relaxed between the points. It is disappointing, but it is also a good learning experience for me,'' revealed Vinod, a student of the Chennai-based Krishnan Tennis Centre.

Erlich soon made it 4-4, producing some delicate back- hand drop volleys and slices, proceeded to break Vinod in the eleventh game, and then served out the match.

Vinod probably erred in not trying to lob his opponent, who kept approaching the net time and again, and eventually paid the price. It was a courageous display nevertheless from the Indian.

Towards the end of the day, there was a major upset in doubles, with the Israeli pair of Mier Deri and Eliran Dooyev ambushing the second seeded combination of Abdul-Hamid Makhkamov (Uzb) and Michal Varsanyi (Svk) 6-2, 6-3.

The results:

Singles (first round): Rishi Sridhar (Ind) bt 6-Mustafa Ghouse (Ind) 6-4, 6-3; 2-Eyal Erlich (Isr) bt Vinod Sridhar (Ind) 7-5, 5-7, 7-5; Kamala Kannan (Ind) bt S. Kanbargimath (Ind) 6-2, 7-5; Sunil Kumar (Ind) bt Meir Deri (Isr) 6-3, 6-3; Nitin Kirtane (Ind) bt Shivang Misra (Ind) 6-2, 6-2.

Doubles (first round): 4-Manoj Mahadevan & Rishi Sridhar (Ind) bt Ajay Chowdapalli & Yasser Arafat (Ind) 6-0, 6-3; Sunil Kumar & Kedar Shah (Ind) bt Abhishek Tamhane & Kedar Tembe (Ind) 7-6 (3), 6-2; Jurek Stasiak (Aus) & Roger Krajcovic (Hun) bt Ciaran Moore (RSA) & Elad Stern (Isr) 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-4; Mier Deri & Eliran Dooyev (Isr) bt 2-Abdul-Hamid Makhkamov (Uzb) & Michal Varsanyi (Svk) 6-2, 6-3.

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