NEW DELHI: Nova Patel overcame some nervous moments to put India on top in pool `D' in the World Junior Cup Asia-Oceania under-14 girls tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Thursday.

On another hot day, when all attention was on the thriller between Japan and Thailand, the Indian girls managed to win their singles without dropping a set against Korea.

Not so convincing

Second-seeded India was able to live up to its stature, though the performance of Rishika Sunkara and Nova was not that convincing. Of course, Rishika was able to put India ahead in the first singles without much fuss, while Nova sweated a lot more in the second against the better stroking Ji-Yun Park. Nova was gritty and came up with a passing shot at 4-4 in the tie-break to break the resistance of the Korean. The Indian girl, returning after ill-health and thus not very strong physically, had led 4-1 in the first set and was twice serving for the set at 5-4 and 6-5 before facing anxious moments. However, she served a lot better in the second set to pull through.

Quite understandably, the Indian girls took it easy in the doubles, possibly preserving themselves for the crucial quarterfinal encounter on Friday against Uzbekistan.

It may be a much tougher challenge for India against the Uzbeks than what it had faced against New Zealand, Kazakhstan and Korea in the league.

Uzbekistan banks on Alisa Ogorodova, the 13-year-old daughter of the former Asia No.1 men's player, Oleg Ogorodov who has accompanied the team as its captain. Alisa lost a close three-setter to Cynthia Melita Setyawan of Indonesia, the top seed, and had to face the music from her father- cum-captain who did not let her touch her kit after the match when she was leaving the court and pulled her out of the doubles.

The young girl will be particularly keen to make her captain happy on Friday with a good fare that would possibly serve as a launching pad for a serious Uzbek challenge against the host.

The top four teams from the 16-nation regional competition will qualify for the World Group finals to be held in Czech Republic later in the season.

The contest of the day was between Japan and Thailand, as both the teams slugged hard in energy-sapping conditions, especially in the decisive doubles, which Japan won 6-3, 6-7(4), 8-6 in two hours and 42 minutes, to top the pool. Thailand may have lost but it has much better chance to qualify from the region than many other teams, as it faces China, the topper of pool `C'. The other two quarterfinals will feature, Indonesia against New Zealand and Japan versus Australia.

The results: Pool `A': Indonesia bt Uzbekistan 2-1; Hong Kong bt Malaysia 2-1.

Pool `B': Japan bt Thailand 2-1; Chinese Taipei bt Sri Lanka 3-0.

Pool `C': China bt Australia 2-1; Philippines bt Singapore 3-0.

Pool `D': India bt Korea 2-1 (Rishika Sunkara bt Sung-Ah Park 6-3, 6-3; Nova Patel bt Ji-Yun Park 7-6(4), 6-3; Aishwarya Agrawal/ Rishika Sunkara lost to Se-Won Lee/ Ji-Yun Park 0-6, 4-6); New Zealand bt Kazakhstan 3-0.

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