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December 17, 2001, Chandigarh, India
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Leander on a talent scouting mission New Delhi, December 16 Leander, who disclosed that he has been assured of one of the four wild cards for the main draw of the Tata Open Tennis Championships to be held in Chennai from December 31, said he was planning to concentrate on his singles as the Tata Open affords a “big opportunity to pick up some points”. “I would like to pursue a few more singles events with an eye on the Davis Cup and the Asian Games next year”. He, however, added that “doubles remains my top priority as it’s my bread and butter”. The Indian Davis Cup ace was happy with the year that has gone by as “this season was a very fruitful year for me”. He said his injured wrist was feeling “very strong” after treatment and recovery and he was happy with his performances in the French, Wimbledon and US Open championships. Leander said he was now very closely involved in the nurturing of talent in India. He said over the years “we found fault with infrastructure. But now that better infrastructure was in place in many tennis centres in the country, it was time for more minds and people to come together” and put Indian tennis on a pedestal. Leander said he was happy to see the progress made by former national champion Sunil Kumar. He said when Sunil won the national title in Delhi two years ago at the age of 16 years, there was a lot of hype over him and unfair expectations were put on him. “Lots of pressure was put on him, but he has done quite well. I am very impressed with his discipline off the court”. But Leander cautioned that there was a lot of hard work ahead of Sunil. “He’s a bright prospect”, Leander said. Leander wants someone to push him to a corner as “I love to hand the mantle over to someone else”. Leander was also impressed with the “big serve” of Bopanna and the consistent baseline game of Vijay Kannan. He is happy that the new crop of players are taller than players of his generation. “Physically we have improved, but we have still a long way to go”, he summed up. |
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Mukesh annexes Servo Masters New Delhi, December 16 Delhi’s Zai Kipgen and Chandigarh’s Harmeet Kahlon finished second, five strokes behind the leader at four-under 284 apiece. Mukesh’s elder brother, Pune’s D.S. Raghuvanshi, was tied for the fourth position with Delhi’s Rohtas Singh at three-under 285 while the trio of Uttam Singh Mundy, Yusuf Ali (both Kolkata) and Rahul Ganapathy (Mysore) finished tied-sixth at one-under 287. Mukesh Kumar is the happiest man in the world. “I finally broke the voodoo,” said a smiling Mukesh, referring to his failure to card a win in the last six tournaments despite finishing in the top five on each occasion. “It was getting a bit depressing, especially after two runner-up finishes,” said the winner of this season’s TNGF Open, Chennai, and Sher-e-Kashmir Open, Srinagar. Today, Mukesh’s opening hole saw him card a morale-breaking triple bogey. “I was taking my practice swing on my approach shot when my club accidentally broke a twig on a tree, which was original in my line of swing,” said the golfer with a trace of dejection on his face. “However, I decided there and then that I would not let that affect me and win regardless”. Mukesh, after the triple bogey start, went on to drop a shot on the fourth but birdies on the seventh and ninth saw him make the turn at two-over. On his back nine, he bogeyed the 16th but prior to that an eagle on the 14th. |
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Delhi under-16 emerge North Zone champions New Delhi, December 16 Delhi gathered five points from their drawn match against Himachal Pradesh on the basis of their first innings lead at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground. Gaurav Chabra, who scored 292 runs in four innings, including one-century knock of 165 against Himachal Pradesh, was the top scorer for Delhi. Aditya Jain scored 281 in four innings, including one-century knock of 131 against Haryana. Sikhar Dhawan scored 269 in three innings and a double century knock of 231 against Jammu and Kashmir. Gaurav Sharma, with two-century knocks, scored 256 runs in three innings. In bowling, Sahil Arora, a right-arm off-spinner, took 16 wickets for 214 runs in three matches. He was the top wicket-taker for Delhi. Medium-pacer Abhishek Chaudhary took 13 wickets for 213 runs and another medium pacer, Rajiv Mahajan, with 12 wickets for 239 runs, got the second and third position, respectively. Leg-spinner Ankur Garg took 9 wickets for 76 runs. Last year, Delhi were second in the all-India knock out round as they were beaten by Uttar Pradesh in the final in Kolkata. Coach Ajit Chaudhary attributed teamwork for the team’s success. Aditya Jain and Gaurav Chabra added 155 runs for the third wicket for Delhi in the match against HP. Gaurav and Saurabh put on 125 runs for the sixth wicket. Scores: Himachal Pradesh: 328. Delhi: 459 for 7 (Gaurav Chabra 165, Aditya Jain 89, Mayank Sidana 72, Saurabh Jain 48, Sikhar Dhawan 33, Vikram Thakur 4/138, Viabhav Thakur 3/103). |
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Castrol award for Ratra New Delhi, December 16 |
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