HINDU - Tuesday, Oct 22, 2002 - By Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI OCT. 21. He has beaten some of the top players of the country like Rohan Bopanna, Mustafa Ghouse and Sunil Kumar. The 21-year-old Kedar Tembe added Manoj Mahadevan's name to his prize collection, as he downed the National grasscourt champion 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) in the first round of the DSCL National tennis championship at the DLTA Complex here on Monday.

On a warm and pleasant afternoon, the stylish left-hand play of Kedar Tembe proved tough to digest for the gangling Manoj, who struggled with his own rusty game.
The Pune lad, Tembe put his strong ground strokes to good use to tease the net-rushing Manoj. He was understandably nervous while serving for the match at 5-4 and 6-5 in the second set, and missed a matchpoint in the process in the 11th game.

Yet, Tembe played the tie-break with considerable resolve to pull ahead after being on par at 4-4. Manoj put a backhand return wide on matchpoint, and Tembe let out a war cry in sheer joy, on a task well accomplished.

"I haven't done that well in the National championships before, though I have beaten some good players as a junior. I returned pretty well today, and that was my key to success. I played sharp, except in the ninth and 11th games of the second set, when I hardly got a first serve. I was nervous,'' said Tembe, who trains with coach Nandan Bal in Pune.
Manoj had not played a tournament for the last few weeks after his reasonably fruitful stint in the US and Caribbean Islands. He was actually preparing for his college exams, and had decided to skip the National Championship. However, with the exams being postponed, Manoj sought a wild card for the event to make the maximum of the time on hand. The lack of sufficient preparation was evident, as Manoj looked out of sorts this day.
Tembe will meet the winner of Vijayendra Laad and Parantap Chaturvedi in the pre-quarterfinals.

In another upset in the men's section, the National junior champion, Somdev Dev Varman downed the eighth-seeded Punna Vishal with his all-round attacking game. Somdev was particularly impressive at the net. The seventh-seeded Ajay Ramaswamy caught the eye with his big serves and solid strokes.

He overpowered Saurabh Singh who himself was serving hot till his game got blunted.
Amanjot Singh, who had to handle eight matches in all in the men's and junior qualifying events over the past four days, was in good form as he outplayed the seasoned C.D. Ajay.
In other matches, top seed Sunil Kumar and the second-seeded Nitin Kirtane cruised through.

The latest Arjuna awardee in tennis, Sandeep Kirtane proved too good for Udaykumar Reddy, and may run into the fourth-seeded Mustafa Ghouse in the next round.

In the women's section, qualifier Sasha Abraham defeated Medhini Sharma after losing the first set. Sheethal Goutham, Radhika Tulpule, Shruti Dhawan and Archana Venkataraman made it to the second round from among the prominent lot.

Qualifier Sonia Shelar overcame the challenge from the wild card entrant Vishika Chhetri in a long-drawn tie-break in the first set, and did not face much challenge thereafter.

The results:

Men (first round): Sunil Kumar bt Shriyansh Sancheti 6-2, 6-1; Somdev Dev Varman bt Punna Vishal 6-2, 7-5; Rohan Gajjar bt Ashutosh Singh 6-2, 6-3; Amanjot Singh bt C.D. Ajay 6-2, 6-2; Ajay Ramaswami bt Saurabh Singh 6-3, 6-1; Sandeep Kirtane bt Udaykumar Reddy 6-2, 6-2; Kedar Tembe bt Manoj Mahadevan 6-4, 7-6 (7-4); Nitin Kirtane bt Nipun Gupta 6-4, 6-2.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Sandeep Kirtane and Vijay Kannan bt Vijayendra Laad and S. K. Shivshankar 6-1, 6-1; Nitin Kirtane and Saurav Panja bt Ritesh Chitlangiya and Abhishek Tamhane 6-2, 6-2; Uday Kumar Reddy and Benjamin Xavier bt Shivang Mishra and Nishank Mishra 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5); Punna Vishal and Anjan Viplav bt Gurmehar Singh and Ashutosh Singh 6-2, 6-7 (4-7), 7-5.

Women (first round): Sheethal Goutham bt Ragini Vimal 6-4, 6-1; Shruti Dhawan bt Alice Joy 7-5, 6-3; Lata Assudani bt Meghana Paritala 6-0, 6-4; Sonia Shelar bt Vishika Chhetri 7-6 (10-8), 6-2; Sasha Abraham bt Medhini Sharma 3-6, 6-3, 6-0; Archana Venkataraman bt Sai Swapna 6-2, 6-0; Redhina Parekh bt K. Pooja 6-3, 7-5; Radhika Tulpule bt Nandini Perumal 6-2, 6-0.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Lata Assudani and Preeti Rao bt Isha Chopra and Sonali Sanap 6-1, 6-4; Liza Pereira and Sasha Abraham bt Archana Venkataraman and Yamini Thukkaiandi 6-0, 1-6, 6-3.

Under-18 boys: Parantap Chaturvedi bt Manoj Kumar Sewa 6-2, 6-4; Rupesh Roy bt Aditya Madkekar 7-5, 6-2; Arun Prakash bt Punna Vikas 6-4, 6-0; Siddharth Patil bt Saurabh Kohli 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-0; Dhruv Kumar bt Varun Giri 7-6 (7-5), 6-3; Shantanu Dhaka bt Tushar Garg 6-0, 6-2; Arjun Goutham bt J. Vishnu Vardhan 7-6 (7-4), 6-3; V. M. Ranjith bt Jitin Bishnoi 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Dhruv Kumar and Manoj Kumar Sewa bt Aditya Madkekar and K. Mahajan 4-6, 7-5, 6-1; Divij Sharan and Tushar Liberhan bt M.V. Abhay Prakash and Arjun Goutham 7-5, 4-6, 6-2; Punna Vikas and Chetan Kulkarni 7-5, 6-2; Nihal Advani and rupesh Roy and N. Bodopalia and Honey Rana 6-4, 6-2; Yannick Nelord and L.S. Anantha Bhaskar bt Vivek Shokeen and Varun Giri 6-2, 4-6, 6-0; Amanjot Singh and Saurabh Singh bt J. Vishnu Vardhan and Pawan Polovarapu 6-2, 6-3.

Under-18 girls: Isha Lakhani bt Jilke Nelord 6-0, 6-1; Parul Goswami bt Preethi Shravan 6-3, 6-1; Preeti Rao bt Nivedita Venkatesh 6-0, 7-5; Iciri Rai bt Sharanya Pattabi 6-2, 6-3; Afreen Jahan bt Neha Rana 6-3, 7-6 (7-1); Kamini Murugaboopathy bt Oormila Ram 6-4, 6-3; Sandra Sashidharan bt Sagarika Phadke 6-2, 6-4; Poonam Reddy bt Priyanka Mehta 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Priyanka Mehta and Madura Ranganathan bt Sagarika Phadke and K. Pooja 6-2, 6-4; Priyanka Parekh and Ragini Vimal bt Monika Goel and Isha Toor 6-1, 6-1.