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Kathmandu Monday April 30, 2001 Baishakh 17, 2058.
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Karsoliyas take the King’s Cup
Malika, Ghale finish runners-up
Post Report
KATMANDU, April 29 - The Indian duo of Kaptan and
Nayana Karsoliya lifted the men’s and women’s singles crown in the 2nd
King’s Cup final defeating Krishna Ghale and Malika Rana respectively in the final
matches played today at the All Nepal Lawn Tennis Association Complex at Saatdobato.
Kaptan Karsoliya had to overcome a
‘possessed’ Krishna Ghale in a spectacular final match to take the title 6-3,
7-5. Though the match was decided in straight sets, it was far from being one-sided.
Ghale, playing his trademark power game posed a big threat to the Indian’s dream as
he, at times, looked to take the game away from Karsoliya, much younger than himself.
Karsoliya looked determined to slow the pace of the game as Ghale tried his aggressive
shots a bit too many.
Ghale, ‘Krishna Uncle’ to the younger
players and the ‘fighter’ for the matured fans, did not give any hint of ageing
as he was in the driving seat most of the times. With the crowd cheering every good shot,
Ghale kept coming back in the game as Karsoliya tried to take the game in his command.
Kasoliya committed a total of seven double faults while Ghale did not commit any. He,
however, had more backhand winners and percentage success of his first serve was better
than that of Ghale, giving him an extra advantage apart from his agility on the court.
Karsoliya had the first set relatively easy as he
broke Ghale in his very first serve of the match and again in the sixth game. Though Ghale
came back in the seventh game of the set breaking Karsoliya, it was a bit too late as
Karsoliya was already on the driving seat.
The second set saw the Ghale revival of sorts as he
matched the Indian in the strokeplay breaking him twice in the set. Karsoliya also showed
some signs of nervousness committing most of his double faults in the set. However, he
kept his cool and showed some of the best cross-court returns of the tournament to break
Ghale’s serve thrice in the set emerging victorious in the failing light.
Nayana outclass Malika
Nayana Karsoliya emerged victorious in two title
clashes against Malika Rana cashed on in the lapses provided by the latter. Nayana won the
ladies’ singles against Malika 6-2, 6-4. Though the statistics may hint otherwise,
the match was a tough fought one.
The match saw as many as 13 service breaks and 13
double faults. Nayana led the way in maximum double faults with seven while Malika was not
far behind with six of them - most of them coming in the second set. Malika also fired a
two aces in the match. The difference between the two of them was the calmness Nayana
exuded on the court, enabling her to score more winners than Malika.
Rana never seemed quite confident playing forehand
and scored a single winner with the shot. She also never tried coming to the net when she
had chance to fire some easy winners against her opponent.
On the other hand, the Indian girl showed good
understanding of her opponent’s weakness as she forced Malika to use forehand more
than she would have liked to. That was one of the reasons she had so many unforced errors,
which eventually took the game away from her hand. She seemed to choke at the moment she
had to revert to forehand, a sign not too good for her career. She looked a completely
different player when she played forehand with confidence.
Malika had earlier lost to Nayana in the junior
girls’ singles. Nayana came back in an unlikely fashion as Malika was leading the set
3-0 at a point. Nayana’s resurgence started from the point she was 2-5 down and
Malika was serving for the set. Nayana finally took the set 7-6 and the match 7-5 despite
the fact that Malika was leading the set 3-0 initially.
Pariyar takes junior boys title
Jitendra Pariyar today defeated the lanky Pravin
Dayananda to take the junior boys title. Dayananda, having taken the first set had to
concede defeat as Pariyar came back strongly in the match taking both of the remaining
sets.
Laura, Krishna take sub-juniors
In the sub-junior’s section it was Krishna
Karsoliya and Laura who took the title. Krishna Karsoliya defeated Shreyans Karki 9-3
while Laura received a walk over from Lizzie in the title match. The match completed the
hat-trick for the Karsoliyas as they took most of the categories they participated in
winning men’s section, ladies’ section (both seniors and juniors) and
sub-juniors boys section.
Doubles title for Rana, Dhandup
The pair of Manoj Rana and Chamba Dhandup won the
veteran’s doubles title for the 40 years and above defeating the team of Subarna
Dhakhwa and Abdul Rehman in the final match played today.
The prizes were distributed to the winners and
runners-up by Binod Shankar Palikhe, member secretary of the National Sports Council.
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