Bronze in tennis

After beating world No 214 Oleg Ogodorov of Uzbekistan in a tiring three-set match Wednesday, Bhupathi had said: “In the third set, I was bone tired and Ogodorov was just getting stronger and stronger.”

Today, he tried to do his best by increasing the pace of the game. But, Iwabuchi matched his pace, broke Bhupthi in the fifth game and went on hold his serve to close the first set 6-4.

Thesecond set was slightly different, in which both went on to hold their serve till the seventh game, when Iwabuchi broke him.

Summoning his last strength, Bhupathi broke back to level at 4-4. After Bhupathi held his serve to make it 6-5, he had his chance to take the set on Iwabuchi’s serve at 30-40, but the Japanese clinched the next three points and forced the second set to a tie-breaker.

The Indian was tired by then and could not match Iwabuchi’s strong serve and volley and went down to him 7-1. Mahesh later said: “This experience will stand me good for the future. I’m confident of putting up a better show the next time.”

Srinath broke the Korean’s serve in the very first game to lead 1-0 and then kept up the pressure, holding serve till the fourth game.

The superior Korean then unleashed some blazing returns to equal the game and went on in similar vein to stamp his authority in the match.

Giving no respite to Srinath, he broke him again on the sixth game to close the set 6-3.

It was thesame story in the second set in which the Korean displayed tremendous agility against a tired-looking Srinath. The Indian was finding it difficult to cover the court as Yoon started unleashing big serves and returned well.

Srinath was left stranded several times as Yoon passed him with stunning cross court returns.

Yoon broke Srinath in the fifth and ninth games to finish the match 6-3 to reach the final.

“It was disappointing,” said coach Jaideep Mukherjea after the two matches. “We were hoping for the gold but both Iwabuchi and Yoon played well, though Bhupathi had his chances,” he said.

“The bronze medals are good, but a gold would have made the difference,” the coach said, adding that despite constraints his boys played well. “It was a good performance by Bhupathi and Srinath.”