Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 15 (IANS) Delhi’s Yuki Bhambri Saturday became the new national tennis champion, though his 6-4, 7-6(6) victory over top seed Vishnu Vardhan was marred by contentious line calls at the Fenesta National tennis Championships at the DLTA complex here.

Pune’s 15-year-old Rutuja Bhosale had a fairy-tale ending to her first senior national, bringing to an end the dream run of comeback girl and twice champion Isha Lakhani with a 6-3, 6-3 victory.

The men’s final was soured by three bad line calls by the chair umpire, all going against Vishnu at crucial junctures. The calls appeared so blatant that the packed court-side crowd was so incensed that they turned hostile against home favourite Yuki for no fault of his.

However, there is no taking away from 19-year-old Yuki, who seemed to have saved his best for the final. The two friends, have squared off six times on the ITF circuit and as expected the match went into long rallies on the slow plexi-turf courts.

But it was Yuki who came on top with his sharp game, invariably finding the angles. Vishnu, a 2007 grasscourt champion and 2006 hard court finalist, looked a little subdued and made a streams of errors in his attempt to outsmart Yuki.

To make matters worse, the 24-year-old from Secunderabad was hard done by umpire’s blinking. The first horror by the umpire came when Vishnu, after dropping his serve early in the match, held a break point in the fourth game. A backhand pass looked good, but the chair ruled it out. Reprieved Yuki went on to take the set without any hassle.

Yuki carried on the momentum in the second set, breaking Vishnu straightaway. But Vishnu fought back and put pressure on the Delhi boy’s service in the sixth game, that went to three deuces. But, when Yuki was on a game point, a clean forehand winner by Vishnu was called out, handing the 19-year old Delhite a 4-2 lead.

However, uncharacteristic errors by Yuki allowed Vishnu to level at 4-all.

The set looked set to stumble into a tie-break, but on Yuki’s serve at 40-30, another Vishnu forehand winner that kissed the line was called out. A frustrated Vishnu, who took the first two calls calmly, could not longer take it and smashed his racquet on the ground and screamed “how long can one keep quiet.”

Despite the crowd cheering on his errors, Yuki maintained his cool and prevailed in the stiffly fought breaker to win the set and the match.

“For a second I was like, which part of the world I am playing,” smiled Yuki. “I did not see the calls as I was at the other end of the court. If Vishnu is saying then it must be.

“It was a tough match. I wanted to get a good start and dominate and today I was able to do so.”

Vishnu chose to take the line calls in his stride. “It is a part and parcel of the game, but they came at crucial points and who knows what could have happened (if they had been called correct).

“Yuki is a good friend and and today played extremely well, I was not at my best. But Yuki never allowed me to play aggressively,” said the ONCG HR executive.

Yuki received Rs. 1.5 lakh for the win and Vishnu Rs. 1 lakh and the two will now fly to Nigeria to play in an ITF tournament.

Playing her first final, the bespectacled Rutuja, who had taken out several seeds en route to final, continued her impressive run and dominated the match with her fluent grounstrokes and solid first serve.

Lakhani, who thrives on varying the pace, was forced to play aggressive from the baseline but Rutuja matched her fearlessly and went for the line.

The two players exchanged breaks in the sixth and seventh games before a rash of errors from Isha got Rutuja the decisive break in next and she made no mistakes in serving out the set.

Isha had an early break in the second set but in the fifth game, Rutuja produced some clean angled groundstrokes to break back as Isha muffed a forehand.

An error-strewn seventh and ninth games from Isha gave Rutuja set and the match and she celebrated with a clenched-fist and a “c’mon!” shout.

A beaming Rutuja said she never expected to win the title.

“When I first saw the draw, I thought I will be knocked out in the first round. Beating top seeded Prerna gave me the confidence and I am happy to come through,” said Rutuja, who lost in the quarterfinals of under-18 event.

Rutuja’s now plans to play on the senior circuit and junior Grand Slams next year. She will feature in grade II ITF circuit in South Korea next.

Rutuja took home Rs. 1 lakh as prize money and Isha Rs. 75.000