The Hindu : Sport : Maiden title for Dmitry Tursunov

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 03, 2006
ePaper

Sport

Sport

Maiden title for Dmitry Tursunov

Kamesh Srinivasan

PHOTO: VIVEK BENDRE

CHAMPION: Dmitry Tursunov, who won the Kingfisher Airlines Open tennis tournament in Mumbai on Monday.

MUMBAI: Dmitry Tursunov clinched his maiden title on the Tour with a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(5) victory over Tomas Berdych in the final of the $380,000 Kingfisher Airlines tennis Open at the CCI courts here on Monday.

In an equally absorbing final, played on the adjacent court No.1 as the inclement weather had pushed a parallel play of the two finals, Mahesh Bhupathi and Mario Ancic survived a tense situation to emerge winners at 6-4, 6-7(6), 10-8 for their second successive title following the one in Beijing a fortnight ago.

Brave effort

It was indeed a brave effort by Rohan Bopanna and Mustafa Ghouse to have saved three matchpoints in the second set tie-break against the favourites at 3-6, but at 8-8 in the match tie-break it was the experience of the former World No.1 doubles star and the top-10 singles player that helped Mahesh and Ancic prevail.

With rain intervening so often, and forcing as much as two hours of disruption of the final that had started at 4 p.m., it had looked at one stage that the 23-year-old Tursunov had blown his chances. For one who dropped his serve in the first game of the match, Tursunov was quite authoritative in racing away with the first set, as he broke back in the second game and later in the sixth, smacking winners all over the court with a touch of authority.

However, a string of doublefaults, he had 11 of them to eight aces in the whole match, and indecisive play saw Tursunov getting broken in the eighth and 10th games of the second set, and a break-back in the ninth was of no help as the match was levelled.

Into the decider, Turusnov led 4-2 with a break in the fifth game, but he looked to have squandered a golden chance as he lost the next three games in a hurry. After another rain interruption, Tursunov broke back for 6-5 but could not serve out the match. Worse, he dropped serve at love in the 12th game.

Gripping contest

In the tie-break, Berdych led 5-4 following an over-head, but Tursunov won the next three points, stretching the 21-year-old Czech who had won the Paris Masters last year in a gripping contest that spanned two hours and 30 minutes. Tursunov smacked a backhand down the line and Berdych was unable to react in time and the Russian put both his arms up in triumph, in celebration of his first title that fetched him $52,000 and 175 ranking points.

Berdych had to be content with $30,600 and 120 points.

The doubles winners collected $16,350 and the runners-up pocketed $9,600.

The results:

Singles (final): Dmitry Tursunov (Rus) bt Tomas Berdych (Cze) 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(5); Doubles (final): Mario Ancic (Cro) and Mahesh Bhupathi bt Rohan Bopanna and Mustafa Ghouse 6-4, 6-7(6), 10-8; Semifinal: Rohan Bopanna and Mustafa Ghouse bt Jamie Delgado and James Auckland 4-6, 6-3, 10-7.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport