Indian challenge ends with Sai

Indian challenge ends with Sai
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 3: India's interest in the $ 25,000 ITF Women's tennis tournament deminished on Friday as lone semifinalist Sai Jayalakshmi was sent packing by Slovakian Lenka Dlhopolcova here.

Russia's Olga Kalijnaia caused another upset of a kind when she defeated in-form Urska Vesenjak of Slovenia in a hotly-contested encounter to make it to the final.

Sai, ranked 423 on the WTA list, started her semifinal match in right earnest against Dlhopolcova taking the first set 4-0 putting her backhand returns to good use.

But her concentration was wayward in the second set and she made several unforced errors as the Slovakian broke Sai twice to take the set 4-1.

Dlhopolcova, ranked a modest 500 on WTA list, let her powerful returns do the talking as she swept past the Indian 4-1 4-0 in the next two sets to book her final berth.

Vesenjak, the winner of $ 10,000 ITF Women's event last week, faced a tough opponent in Kalijnaia as the Russian rallied to beat Slovenian.

Vesenjak drew the first blood when she won a sea-saw first set 5-3, but then Kalijnaia forced a tie-breaker in the second before grabbing the issue 5-4 (8-6).

Lad upsets Mahadevan
MUMBAI: Unseeded Vijayendra Lad of Maharashtra stretched his giant-killing run in the JS Pereira Millennium all-India men's ranking tennis tournament with a spectacular win over third seed Manoj Mahadevan of Tamil Nadu to enter the final at the Bandra Gymkhana here on Friday.

Lad won his 2 hour 45 minute tie 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 to set up a title clash with top seed Vinod Sridhar who overcame IOC's Vasudeva Reddy 7-6 (7-1), 6-2 in the first semi-final which lasted almost an hour.

In the other semi-final, Reddy, a regular in this tournament, frittered away a 3-1 advantage after an early break in the opening set. He allowed Sridhar, his doubles partner, to break back and catch up at 3-3 and was forced into the tie-breaker.

Results: (SF): Men's singles: Vinod Sridhar (TN) bt Vasudeva Reddy (IOC) 7-6 (7-1), 6-2; Vijayendra Lad (Mah) bt Manoj Mahadevan (TN) 2-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Doubles: Vinod Sridhar/ Vasudeva Reddy bt Nandakumar Mukundan/ Benjamin Xavier 6-2, 6-2; Yasser Arafat/ Janmeet Singh bt Kedar Shah/ Asif Ismail (Mah) 7-6 (7-3), 6-1.