HINDU - Thursday, Oct 24, 2002 - By Kamesh Srinivasan

Qualifier Kamala Kannan hauled himself from the brink of defeat to get past the top-seeded Sunil Kumar in the pre-quarterfinals of the DSCL National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Wednesday.

The champion of the 1999 edition, the 19-year-old Sunil Kumar retired, saying that he was struggling to breathe because of a lung infection, when he trailed 7-5, 6-7 (3-7), 0-1, and was down a breakpoint in the second game.

It was an anti-climactic finish to an absorbing contest, as the strongly-built Kamala Kannan was unusually patient in rallying against the stylish left-hander.

After having lost the first set on a solitary break in the 12th game, Kamala Kannan maintained his confident level of play through the second set. It was no surprise when he took the set into the tie-break after an exchange of breaks in the seventh and eighth games.

What came as a surprise was Sunil's inability to play with his usual flair in the tie-break when he committed unforced errors one after the other, to be down 1-6. Kannan closed out that set and was fighting his way up when he forced the second breakpoint after Sunil had enjoyed three game-points at 40-0 in the second game, when the former champion conceded defeat.

The referee Kishore Choudhary suggested to Sunil that he could avail of medical assistance, but the Chandigarh lad was clear that it would insensible to continue any further.

``I am troubled by the infection after returning from the Asian Games. It was tough to breathe, and the rallies were getting longer. He was playing well'', said Sunil, who revealed his resolve to do better in the forthcoming Futures circuit.

In fact, Sunil was there on court a few hours later for his doubles match with Jaco Mathew.

Kamala Kannan was happy to repeat his performance of last year when he had made it to the quarterfinals in the same tournament.

``I had beaten Sunil in the KTC tournament in straight sets recently, and was looking forward to a tough match. I didn't have to do anything great today'', was the modest observation of Kamala Kannan, who will meet Somdev Dev Varman.

It was a day of mixed fortunes for the National junior champion Somdev. The BAT trainee from Chennai was at his fluent best in beating qualifier Saurav Panja, after having endured the agony of being upset in the second round of the junior section, in which he was the top-seed.

``There could not have been a better compensation for my loss in the morning'', said a pleased Somdev, who had lost to Parantap Chaturvedi, the finalist of the 1999 and 2000 edition.

Somdev looked like getting back into the match after losing the first set, but Parantap showed considerable resolve to clinch the match-winning break in the tenth game of the decider. The Chennai lad lacked the rhythm, and struggled to counter the crafty play of Parantap.

The St. Stephen's College student, Parantap however went down with his soft-firing guns blazing in the men's section, in the third set tie-break after being down 1-5 in the second set in which he faced six match points.

In a battle that lasted three hours and 10 minutes, the left-handed Tembe showed his ability to wriggle out of a mess, after he himself was down 2-5 in the decider. He fired two aces in the 11th game to go up 6-5 and dominated the tie-break after being 1-1.

Tembe will have the unenviable task of meeting the second-seeded Nitin Kirtane in the quarterfinals.

In other matches in the men's section, defending champion Vijay Kannan was pushed to his wit's end by Rohan Gajjar. However, Vijay was playing with a high degree of concentration and had rhythm in his game to overwhelm the junior in the third set.

Vijay will meet Vinod Sridhar who brought an end to the impressive run of qualifier Amanjot Singh, with an authoritative display.

Amanjot had shown his class in the morning in the junior event, when he powered past Shantanu Dhaka with big serves and explosive groundstrokes. Later, Nitin further added salt to the wounds of Dhaka by dismissing him for the loss of one game in the men's section.

Ajay Ramaswamy and Mustafa Ghouse set up a clash with each other, as they struggled past seasoned campaigners Vasudeva Reddy and Sandeep Kirtane respectively.

There was no doubt about the result, although both Vasu and Sandeep gave a good account of themselves, as the years had slowed both, a glaring feature when the matches touched the two-hour mark.

Ajay won in three sets, as he let his groundstrokes speak for his prowess, while Mustafa fought his way through in two tie-breaks.

In the women's section, there was not much of a surprise, except for the fourth-seeded Ankita Bhambri getting off to an indifferent start against qualifier Sasha Abraham, and pulling through in three sets.

In the girls event, Kamini Murugaboopathy ousted the third-seeded Sandra Sashidharan and will meet fifth-seeded Sasha Abraham. Madura Ranganathan defeated the eighth-seeded Swetha Devraj in straight sets, in winning the right to challenge the second-seeded S. Poonam Reddy.

The results:

Men (pre-quarterfinals): Kamala Kannan bt Sunil Kumar 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 1-0 (retired); Somdev Dev Varman bt Saurav Panja 6-2, 6-3; Vijay Kannan bt Rohan Gajjar 6-2, 3-6, 6-1; Vinod Sridhar bt Amanjot Singh 6-3, 6-1; Ajay Ramaswamy bt Vasudeva Reddy 6-4, 4-6, 6-1; Mustafa Ghouse bt Sandeep Kirtane 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (8-6); Kedar Tembe bt Parantap Chaturvedi 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-1); Nitin Kirtane bt Shantanu Dhaka 6-1, 6-0.

Men's doubles (quarterfinals): Sandeep Kirtane and Vijay Kannan bt Vasudeva Reddy and Vinod Sridhar 6-1, 6-3; Nitin Kirtane and Saurabh Panja bt Udaykumar Reddy and Benjamin Xavier 6-1, 6-1; Kamala Kannan and Manoj Mahadevan bt Punna Vishal and Anjan Viplav 4-6, 6-3, 6-2; Rohan Gajjar and Ajay Ramaswamy bt Sunil Kumar and Jaco T. Mathew 5-7, 6-3, 6-0.

Women (pre-quarterfinals): Sheethal Goutham bt Isha Chopra 6-3, 6-4; Shruti Dhawan bt S. Poonam Reddy 6-1, 6-2; Sonal Phadke bt Lata Assudani 6-2, 6-3; Liza Pereira bt Sonia Shelar 6-3, 6-2; Geeta Manohar bt Yamini Thukkaiandi 6-1, 7-5; Ankita Bhambri bt Sasha Abraham 4-6, 6-2, 6-2; Isha Lakhani bt Archana Venkataraman 6-4, 6-2; Radhika Tulpule bt Redhina Parekh 6-2, 6-0.

Junior boys (pre-quarterfinals): Parantap Chaturvedi bt Somdev Dev Varman 6-1, 2-6, 6-4; Rupesh Roy bt Indra Kumar 6-2, 6-3; Tushar LIberhan bt Samarth Goutham 6-4, 6-3; Arun Prakash bt Siddharth Patil 6-0, 6-1; Wrik Ganguly bt Dhruv Kumar 6-1, 3-6, 6-3; Amanjot Singh bt Shantanu Dhaka 6-1, 6-3; Divij Sharan bt Arjun Goutham 6-2, 6-4; Chatwinder Singh bt V. M. Ranjith 6-2, 6-3.

Junior girls (pre-quarterfinals): Isha Lakhani bt Parul Goswami 6-0, 6-0; Iciri Rai bt Preeti Rao 6-4, 7-5; Lata Assudani bt Alice Joy 6-4, 6-1; Priyanka Parekh bt Priya Pachkawade 6-1, 6-2; Sasha Abraham bt Afreen Jahan 6-3, 6-1; Kamini Murugaboopathy bt Sandra Sashidharan 7-6 (11-9), 6-3; Madura Ranganathan bt Swetha Devraj 6-4, 6-2; S. Poonam Reddy bt Isha Toor 6-1, 6-0.

Junior girls doubles (semifinals): Sharanya Pattabi and Nivedita Venkatesh bt Priyanka Mehta and Madura Ranganathan 6-4, 7-6 (7-2); Ragini Vimal and Priyanka Parekh bt Kamini Murugaoopathy and Sandra Sashidharan 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.