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Rastogi, Verman shown the door

December 12, 2003 16:46 IST
Last Updated: December 12, 2003 18:15 IST


Big-serving Chen-Huan Yi of Chinese Taipei knocked out top seed Karan Rastogi in straight sets while fourth seed Arun Prakash Rajagopalan got the better of second seed Somdev Verman in the semi-finals of the Asian junior tennis championships in Delhi on Friday.

Yi defeated Rastogi 7-6(10/8), 7-5 while Rajagopalan beat Verman 6-4, 6-4 to enter the summit clash.

While the top seeds in the boys' section were shown the door, the top two girls -- Yung-Jan Chan of Chinese Taipei and Isha Lakhani of India -- lived up to their billing to set up a date in the final.

Second seed Lakhani won a hard-fought battle against third seed Wen-Hsin Hsu of Chinese Taipei, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, while top seed Chang defeated Liu Wang-Ting of China 6-4, 6-1.

The boys' semi-finals turned out to be disastrous for the favourites, who failed to find their touch.

The left-handed Yi was in great form against the top seed and came under no pressure whatsoever as the Indian never seemed to get the measure of his opponent's booming serves.

In fact, big serves remained the order of the match from the very beginning with both players holding their service games to take the first set into a tie-breaker, which Yi won after surviving some anxious moments.

The second set was no different with the southpaw hitting as many as seven aces to dominate the tie.

The young Taipei player, whose colourful hair has been the talking point among the spectators, showed he has a brilliant head over his shoulder as he came up with two fantastic winners to break Rastogi in the 11th game and thereby turn the tide in his favour.

In the other semi-final, Rajagopalan broke Verman twice to race to a 4-0 lead and took the first set comfortably.

The former national junior champion, who did not lose a single game in the quarter-final against Chun-Yuan Cen of Taipei, capitalised on a double fault from Verman to take the tie.

The second seed, who was playing the tournament with a sore shoulder, could not get going against Rajagopalan and never looked like putting up any resistance.

Lakhani rallied from a set dwon to get the better of Hsu in an exciting three-setter.

The top-ranked Indian had some problems controlling her temper following a few bad calls from the linesman and lost her concentration and also the first set in the bargain.

But she came back strongly in the second and took full advantage of her opponent's errors to force the tie into the decider.

Both the players found it hard to hold their serves in the final set but Lakhani used all her experience to take the set and the match.

Somdev Verman and Karan Rastogi won the boys' doubles title, defeating Chun Huan Yi and Chun Yun Chen of Chinese Taipei.

The second seeded Indian pair won 6-2, 5-7, 7-5.

In the girls' category, India's Isha Lakhani and Yung Jan Chan of Chinese Taipei beat the all-Indian pair of Ankita Bhambri and Sanaa Bhambri 7-5, 0-6, 6-1 in the final.


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