Nitin, Rushmi back in business, regain crowns

New Delhi, OctOBER 14: The old guards went out and the new one took charge of the National tennis scene. Also a few promising ones were sp...

New Delhi, OctOBER 14: The old guards went out and the new one took charge of the National tennis scene. Also a few promising ones were spotted as the DSCL Open National hardcourt tennis championship for the seniors came to an end.

Maharasthra’s Nitin Kirtane regained his crown when he overcame a fighting defending champion Sunil Kumar of Chandigarh. Nitin had won the men’s title in 1998. The story was repeated in the women’s section when Rushmi Chakravorthi, who won the title in 1997 and almost regained it last year, fully utilised the chance to avenge her defeat to Sai Jayalakshmy, beating her in straight sets on a sunny afternoon.

The women’s final hardly raised any excitement where Rushmi brushed aside Sai 4-1, 4-1, 4-1 in just 55 minutes. It was easy for the new champion who knew all aspects of her opponent’s game as both happen to be the doubles partners.

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But things were not all that simple for Nitin as he faced a strong resistance from Sunil. The 6-1, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 scoreline said it all. Nitin displayed variety in his game and, of course, his trademark shots were there for all to see. He controlled the pace and power of the game which upset Sunil’s rhythm. But poor serves were something that often spoiled the taste of good tennis.

Upsets ruled the under-18 finals as unseeded Rohan Gajjar claimed the boy’s title, while Radhika Tulpule upstaged the top seed Sonal Phadke in the girl’s final. Gajjar beat second seed Parantap Chaturvedi 6-4, 2-6, 7-5

while Radhika beat Sonal 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.

With today’s victory, Nitin scored a double as pairing with saurav Panja of West Bengal, he beat Rohan Bopanna and Vishal Uppal 7-6 (8), 6-1.

Results (finals):Men’s: (5) Nitin Kirtane (Mah) bt (6) Sunil Kumar (Chd) 6-1, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2. Women’s: (2) Rushmi Chakravothi (IOC) bt (1) Sai Jayalakshmi (IOC) 4-1, 4-1, 4-1. Men’s doubles: (1) Saurav Panja/Nitin Kirtane bt (2) Rohan Bopanna/Vishal Uppal 7-6 (8), 6-1 Women’s doubles: (1) Sai Jayalakshmi/Rushmi Chakravothi bt (2) Archana/Arthi Venkatraman 5-3, 4-1, 4-1 Boy’s under-18 singles: Rohan Gajjar (Mah) bt (2) Parantap Chaturvedi (Dli) 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 Girls under-18 singles: (2) Radhika Tulpule (Mah) bt (1) Sonal Phadke (Mah) 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 Boy’s under-18 doubles: Abhishek Tamhane/Vivek Jhaveri bt Dheeraj Shetty/Tejeshwar Chigateri 6-2, 6-2 Girl’s under-18 doubles: (2) Samrita Sekar/Preeti Rao bt (1) Liza Pereira/Megha Vakharia 6-3, 6-2.

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Just as Nitin was trying to take things easy after having won the first set without much effort, Sunil shook him by breaking in the very first game of the second set. Nitin, however, broke back to keep alevel 1-1 and then broke Sunil again in the fourth game to go up 3-1. There were no breaks till the ninth game. In the tenth game, Nitin forced Sunil to reach two break points. Sunil survived the first and fell at the next to give up set 6-4.

Just when people were almost packing bags to leave, Sunil staged a comeback. After being broken in the fourth and down 3-5, he fought hard to crawl up and broke Kirtane in ninth and eleventh games to take 6-5 lead before served out for the set at 7-5.

Sunil’s momentary enthusiasm quickly went down in the last set as Nitin broke Sunil in the second and eighth to clinch the match.