The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Yang, Albina claims titles

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 10, 2005

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Sport - Tennis

Yang, Albina claims titles

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 9 . Tsung-Hua Yang of Chinese Taipei overpowered Yuki Bhambri 6-4, 6-1 to clinch the boys' title in the Asian under-14 tennis championship that concluded at the DLTA Complex here on Saturday.

For the strongly-built 14-year-old Taipei lad, it was a mission accomplished as he had lost in the final of the first leg in a marathon three-setter to the top-seeded Pattrayu Chumpetch of Thailand.

It was difficult for the 12-year-old Yuki, who had beaten Chumpetch in the quarterfinals, to pose a serious challenge against the power game of the Taipei lad.

It was admirable on the part of Yuki to have broken back twice in the third and fifth games to be eventually on par at 4-4 in the first set, but Yang served and stroked with flair and firepower in twisting the fortune in his favour thereafter.

Once Yang broke Yuki in the tenth game with a backhand down the line winner, the writing was very much on the wall. Yuki could hardly do anything right in the second set except for breaking the Taipei lad's serve in the third game for a face saving effort.

The physical difference between the two boys was far too glaring and Yuki can only take heart from the thought that he would be a much superior player in two year's time when his skinny frame fills up with muscles. He had done exceptionally well to reach this far in a competitive field.

In the girls' section, the top-seeded Albina Khabibulina of Uzbekistan rounded of her outstanding demonstration of skilful strokeplay by annexing her second singles title, without having dropped a set in two weeks. In a nerve-wracking final in which the Thai second seed Noppawan Lertcheewakarn unleashed strokes beyond her limitations, the wiry Albina played with utmost focus to pull through. The 12-year-old Uzbek lass went on to clinch the doubles title as well in winding up a memorable fortnight when she won three titles from four finals.

The results (finals):

Boys: Tusng-Hua Yang (Tpe) bt Yuki Bhambri 6-4, 6-1. Doubles: Chung Su Chen and Cheng Peng Hsieh (Tpe) bt Tsung Hua Yang (Tpe) and David Agung Susanto (Ina) 6-3, 7-5.

Girls: Albina Khabibulina (Uzb) bt Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (Tha) 7-5, 6-3. Doubles: Albina Khabibulina and Alexandra Kolesnichenko (Uzb) bt Nicha Lertpitaksinchi and Satjaporn Mahajaroenkul (Tha) 6-4, 2-0 (retired).

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