$15K+H ITF Futures - Bangalore (Mar 28)

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 1:17 am

Here is another match report from Mr Paul (David's friend). Thanks.

Indian challenge ends

Bangalore, April 1: A continuous string of errors from seventh seed
Prakash Amritraj saw him go down to third-seeded German Simon Greul in the singles semifinals of the ITF Futures tennis tournament at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association Stadium on Friday. Greul won 7-6 (4), 6-1.

The Dutch duo of Jasper Smit and Fred Hemmes scored a 6-1, 6-3 win over the Indian pair of Sunil Kumar Sipaeya and Harsh Mankad to clinch the doubles crown.

Rain played havoc with the proceedings on Friday. As a result, the
start of the first singles semifinal match was delayed for more than an hour. When play did finally start, Amritraj found the going indeed tough after he held a comfortable lead. The Indian got off to a blazing start and gained a solid 3-0 lead after breaking his rival's serve in the second game. He held his serve in the fifth game to extend his lead to 4-1.

However, this was where things turned around. Greul took over the reins
and turned the match in his favour. The German won three games in a row to level the game scores at 4-all. Soon, the first set entered the tie-breaker. Amritraj stayed close behind his rival but a late burst saw the German take the tie-breaker 7-4 and with it the first set.

The second set was a complete disaster for the Indian. Greul was very
strong in his groundstrokes and troubled Amritraj to no end. The German's serves were very strong and he came up with nine piercing aces during the course of the match.

Amritraj was largely to blame for his loss. In the second set, he
constantly netted strokes or hit beyond the baseline. There were a couple of good points Amritraj got by advancing to the net. Barring those few good points, Amritraj could not do much to save the match. Greul took the second set 6-1 to book his berth in the semifinals.

``I let him get back into the game,'' Amritraj said after the match.
``I missed routine volleys that I would not perhaps usually miss. That made a lot of difference. Basically, I built up his confidence and he played
better in the second set. That saw him take the match,'' he added.

The second singles semifinal between Ivan Cerovic of Croatia and Aisam
Qureshi of Pakistan had to be postponed due to rain. It will be played
on Saturday morning.

Rajiv · Post by **Rajiv** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 2:44 am

thanks bhushan and paul for the report
it is clear that greul is a class act and one of the other reports i had read was during the whole tie gruel was quite animated and displayed varying level of emotions and outburts and he(greul) was well preapred going into the tie inspite of grueling 3 setters and doubles and bascially had his work cut out.
unfortuantely pa could not counter it and unconvincing display to say the least considering the level of play he was exhibiting in the past weeks.
it is at these stages papa has to come and rework and i guess it is back to the drawing board.

sindol · Post by **sindol** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 5:42 am

hi all,
please gimme the schedule of the final match.
Any phone no. where i can contact and get the timings.
I talked to one of the players. he said the final will be mostly at 5:00 pm.
can anyone from bangalore confirm this.
Waiting for some replies.

Thanks and regards,
amar

jaydeep · Post by **jaydeep** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 7:51 am

Thanks Bhushan for sharing this on site report ... Also please convey our thanks to David and Mr. Paul ... And wish David speedy recovery.

As Jay mentioned Gruel doesn't like to leave India without title ... We expected so-so performance from our players on clay courts at Chennai and Kolkata ... But our guys won all four titles ... And in B'lore we were hoping better performance (or best bet to win future by Indians), there our player couldn't do much ... But still satisfying futures with good performances by whole lot of Indian players.

Kash need to improve his performance and hopefully he will do needful ... Hardluck for Harsh and Sunil to loosing doubles final ... Eric convey our congratulation to Smit's parents.

Jaydeep.

kiran r more · Post by **kiran r more** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 9:00 am

The performance of Gruel,actually underlines the immense potential Karan Rastogi has.Before people start jumping that karan beating greul was a fluke,I must remind them that Karan almost beat him in st. sets at Mumbai.Karan seems to have this tremendous capability of raising the level of his game against top level players.This quality of his will take him a long way.

Over all a very good circuit for Indian players.Competition was tough but some of them really did very well.Move on to colombo.

Omkara · Post by **Omkara** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 3:53 pm

Gruel wins 6-2, 6-4

Post by **jayakris** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 4:18 pm

For the record, the scores of the two matches today -

[SF] Ivan Cerovic (CRO) d. (1) Aisam Qureshi (PAK) 76(6) 76(4)
[F] (3) Simon Gruel (GER) d. Ivan Cerovic (CRO) 62 64

Congratulations go to Greul for yet another big show in India and to Cerovic for a nice run ..

Jay

Post by **Dhruv** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 4:29 pm

It's Greul guys not Gruel though he seems to be eating Indians up like no tomorrow.

Post by **jayakris** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 4:31 pm

I knew that, but my hand keeps typing "uel" often .. Perhaps the fact that he is "cruel" to everybody else is playing in my mind ..

Jay

Sandeep · Post by **Sandeep** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 6:59 pm

Great show Greul. Big congratulations to you.

amr090 · Post by **amr090** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 8:20 pm

Greul has been dominant. India must be his favorite place in the world right now. I think this guy is going to be in every Indian tournament there is till he doesnt need futures/challengers points anymore. Hes just dismantling the opposition...wonder whats taking him so long to move into the challengers/atp qualies.

prasen9 · Post by **prasen9** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 5:23 am

Greul has won so many tournaments in India, maybe it is enough to start a honorary Simon Greul thread on India tennis forum

-pm

sindol · Post by **sindol** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 7:09 am

Hi all,

As promised, i had been there for the final match. Thanks Subodh for calling me up and providing me with the telephone no. of KSLTA. As pointed by amr090, i had gone equipped with my notebook and pen.
Folks, this is my first ever attempt at writing a match report. Forgive me, if its not up to the mark. I am trying all my best to come up with a decent match report. So here it goes.

One more Indian ITF title in the kitty for Simon Greul

A paltry crowd of tennis aficionados numbering some 200/250 odd gathered at KSLTA stadium to witness the finals of the ITF futures singles match b/w the German Simon Greul and the croat Ivan Cerovic. After playing spoilsport on Saturday, the weather gods were kind enough to provide with a perfect evening for an expected top quality final match.

Both the players made the entry at exactly 6:00 pm and started with the routine warm-ups. Clearly, Simon appeared to be physically fitter of the two. His single handed right hand forehand seemed to be his potent weapon. Ivan seemed to have a lethal single-handed backhand.

Ivan started the proceedings serving for the first game. And before he could get his bearings right, he had already conceded the first game comitting the first of his three double faults. The second game witnessed some drama with Ivan getting terribly upset over a line call. One could notice shades of McEnroe in Ivan when he went up to the pretty little female chair umpire and argued over the line call. To add fuel to his fire, Simon was clearly on top of his game firing his first of total four aces. Simon took the game to lead 2-0.

That line call was still lingering in the mind of Ivan. He was still making unnecessary references to that even to the line umpires now. And before he could find his rhythm he again conceded his serve comitting one more double fault. Simon led 3-0.

Simon had little trouble in holding on to his serves and though Ivan pulled up his socks with holding on to his serve and coming up with a couple of aces, it was too late and Simon comfortably took the first set 6-2 on his serve in the eighth game of the match.

The firt two games in the second set went with the serve. The third game was perhaps the longest game of the match with both the players at the peak of their games. Simon forced some four deuces on Ivan's serve and finally broke the croat's serve to lead 2-1 with a break. Simon held on to his serve and again displayed a solid game to break Ivan for the second time in the second set to lead 4-1.

As one thought that it would be cakewalk for simon, to everyone's surprise Ivan broke Simon for the first time to trail 4-2 now with simon still enjoying one break of serve. Unfortunately, there were no more breaks and the games went with serve. Simon finally registered victory in the tenth game with an ace, the final scoreline being 6-2 6-4.

I hope i have done a decent job with the report. I welcome all critical analysis/suggestions. I couldnt collect any match stats from the referee but here is what i compiled during the match.

Double faults - 0 for Simon. 3 for Ivan. (2 in the first set)
Aces - 4 aces for Simon (3 in the first set). 5 for Ivan (2 in the first set)

Also, i do feel that it was a tough ask for Ivan to win the final with having already won a tough match in the morning. The morning semifinal was said to be the best match of the tournament.

After the match I caught up with the tournament organisers to discuss regarding the event. The secretary reiterated that it was tough to find sponsorers for the event. In fact, it was so tough for them that at one stage they feared if they could host the event. Sharma Transports and Prasanna V Ghotage came to their rescue offering the much-needed sponsorship.

To give a fair credit to the organisers, they did treat all with tea and refreshements after the match.

I also caught up with some wannabe players. I met this girl named Tara Shivshankar. Does anyone have any info about her? She has been to some ITF events in other countries too. She seemed to be quite happy with the facilities at the KSLTA. But as expected, its the sponsorers that are eluding her.

I also appreciate the fact that KSLTA have recruited a foreign fitness trainer.

I wish i had a digital camera so that i could have uploaded some snaps.

In my opinion, had there been good hype and some aggressive marketing, the event could have definitely been a huge success in terms of audience and thereby sponsorship.

Ok....ok....i think i am stretching a bit too much.....sorry in that case. Would like to give any more details if anyone wishes so.

Regards,
Amar

Post by **Dhruv** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 7:18 am

Great report Amar. Thanks a lot for this.

Sandeep · Post by **Sandeep** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 7:22 am

That was cool match report Amar. you know you did a great job. So in future we will be looking at you and Subodh for scores at Bangalore tournaments.

It is very sad to hear that there are no sponsors. Especially because, Karnataka government which presented a cheque of 10K dollars to Sania didn't come forward when KSLTA needed it the most.

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