Men''s tennis team in quarter-finals, eves crash out

Sat, Nov 13 10 05:53 PM

Guangzhou, Nov 13 (PTI) Led by Somdev Devvarman, India''s men''s tennis team breezed into the quarter-finals but Sania Mirza''s absence cost the women''s team dearly as it crashed out of the Asian Games here today. Somdev led a 3-0 rout of Qatar in the second round as he and Karan Rastogi recorded singles wins to clinch the tie. Rastogi put fourth seed India ahead with a crushing 6-1 6-1 win over Jabor Mohammed Al Mutawa in just 46 minutes and then Somdev clinched the tie by routing Mousa Shanan Zayed 6-0 6-1 in 38 minutes in the second singles rubber. Somdev later combined with Sanam Singh to make it an all win day by clinching the inconsequential doubles rubber 6-0 6-1 against Mubarak Shan Zayid and Abdulrah Al Hareth in just 35 minutes. India, who have come without doubles stars Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, will next take on seventh seed Thailand, which registered a 3-0 win over Sri Lanka. However, it was heart-break for the Indian eves as Sania opted out of the opening tie against Indonesia owing to an ear problem and the team suffered a 0-3 mauling. In the absence of the Commonwealth Games silver medallist, it was left to Nirupama Sanjeev and Poojashree Venkatesh to pull off singles wins but they failed terribly. "I was sick for four days and a lot of things changed because of that. We didn''t underestimate our opponents. If we could play this match again and I was able to play, the result would be different," Sania said after India lost the tie. Nirupama, who came out of retirement recently to play for India in the CWG, straight away got a thrashing as she was outplayed 1-6 1-6 by Ayu Kade Dwi Fani Damayanti in 56 minutes in the first rubber. The onus to bring India back in the tie was on young Poojashree but she frittered away a flying start to suffer a 6-2 5-7 2-6 defeat against 337-ranked Lavinia Tananta. Later, Nirupama and Rushmi Chakravarthi lost the doubles rubber 3-6 1-6 to Nany Suharyadi and Jesse Rompies. After a comfortable opening set win, Poojashree, ranked 521 on the WTA charts, was leading 3-1 in the second set in her singles and could have gone for the kill but the script changed dramatically after that. Poojashree dropped her serve in the fifth game and allowed her opponent a comeback as she failed to curb her unforced errors. After getting a bye in the opening round, India''s men''s team, seeded fourth, will play its second round against unseeded Qatar later today.

Source: Published>