Sport - Tennis   

Schmidt talks her way out of trouble

By Nandakumar Marar

PUNE DEC. 5. Jennifer Schmidt, using auto suggestion to talk her way out of pressure, strung together enough points against Sania Mirza on the rampage. Down 3-6 in the first set, the second-seeded Austrian hung in there when the cause seemed lost, conversed with her alter ego at lot between rallies, before winning the next two for a tense, but satisfying 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3) result. The outcome guarantees a singles semifinal place for the highest seed left in the NECC $10,000 International Tennis Federation Women's Circuit Pune leg.

The second singles finalist will be decided after a match between a qualifier and an unseeded player, Varana Marie Beller and Kateryna Bondarenko respectively, on Friday. The unseeded Ukranian exposed the inconsistency in Radhika Tulpule's game, winning 6-0, 6-2 to douse the Pune player's ambitions after Wednesday's upset of top seed Rushmi Chakravarthi.

The two vanquished Indians however teamed up later in the evening to clinch a doubles final berth, defeating Ankita Bhambri/Isha Lakhani in three sets.

Sania stuck to her usual assertive ways against the bigger Austrian, serving two aces in the first game of the match. She also opted to work the ball around from the baseline after getting a taste of Jennifer's power during one net surge, able to get only a faint touch at full stretch to a ferocious forehand. The sixth seeded Indian played to her strengths, picking points with emphatic winners to both corners of the court for the first set, aided by one break in the eighth game.

Jennifer ran into trouble thereafter against Sania ready to attack at every opportunity, the Austrian facing breakpoints on serve twice and getting broken once to trail 3-5 at one stage before the turnaround happened. The second seed was warned by the chair umpire for code violation after an angry reaction to her own mistake. Instead of cooling down, Jennifer only got charged up, the effect almost immediate on her game which became more focussed and hence more effective, winning the set 6-3 to force the decider.

Sania conceded early initiative with a double-fault, then saved one breakpoint before her rival broke through. Games went with serves till the sixth when the Indian broke back. Unforced errors increased as pressure told on both players, the Austrian recovering her poise to draw level thrice, leading to the tie-breaker which she won with ease, coming with two steps away from the title. Turkey's Ipek Senoglu, seeded fifth, now stands in the way.

The results (Indians unless specified):

Singles (quarterfinals): Kateryna Bondarenko (Ukr) bt Radhika Tulpule 6-0, 6-2; Varana Marie Beller (Ger) bt Akgul Amanmuradova (Uzb) 6-4, 6-1; 5-Ipek Senoglu (Tur) bt 3-Suchanan Viratprasert (Thai) 6-3, 6-4; 2-Jennifer Schmidt (Aut) bt 6-Sania Mirza 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3).

Doubles (semifinals): K. Bondarenko (Ukr)/A. Amanmuradova (Uzb) bt Shruti Dhawan/Sheetal Goutham 6-1, 6-2; S. Mirza/R. Tulpule bt Ankita Bhambri/Isha Lakhani 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.

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