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Journalism of Courage
Sanna Bhambri on Friday showed that she was as good as her sister Ankita. Like her elder sister did for most of last year, Sanaa played a starring role in taking the Indian team to the World Group of the Junior Federation Cup for the second consecutive year.
In the quarterfinals of the Asia-Oceania zonal qualifying tennis competition at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, India, led by the New Delhi girl and Mumbai teammate Tara Iyer (India No.1) defeated third-seeded Korea 2-1 to book India’s berth.
After Thursday’s stunning show in which India downed Japan 2-1, No 3 seeds Korea were expected to be tougher opponents.
But Sanaa shrugged off the nerves and memories of her tentative start against Japan and crushed Ye-Ra Lee 6-0, 6-3. Lee struggled right from the start as Sanaa took total command of the proceedings.
In the second singles, Tara struggled in the initial stages before overcoming Hae-Sung Kim 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. After going down in the first set tamely, Tara stormed back to claim the second and third sets. These two wins gave India an unassailable 2-0 lead and rendered the doubles match inconsequential.
But Kartiki Bhat, who featured in her second successive losing doubles tie, needs to improve her game. The Pune girl teamed up with Tara on Friday but the pair went down to the Korean duo of Hye-Mi Byun/Ye-Ra Lee 6-7 (3-7), 2-6. Incidentally, Kartiki is the only survivor of last year’s team, which finished fifth — India’s best showing to date.
On Thursday, India had beaten Japan 2-1 with Sanaa starting off with a win over Megumi Fukui 7-5, 6-2. Tara then edged out Mari Tanaka 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 in a two-hour duel in the blazing sun and humidity.
The doubles, like today, was a mere formality yesterday and the Indian pair of Kartiki and Sanaa lost it.
Of the 16 teams originally scheduled to compete in the tournament, six have pulled out for various reasons.
RESULTS (Brackets denote seedings) Quarterfinals: Chinese Taipei (1) bt New Zealand 3-0; India (2) bt Korea (3) 2-1 (Sanaa Bhambri bt Ye-Ra Lee 6-0, 6-3; Tara Iyer bt Hae-Sung Kim 2-6, 6-4, 6-1; Kartiki Bhat/Tara Iyer lost to Hye-Mi Byun/Ye-Ra Lee 6-7, 2-6); Thailand (4) bt Malaysia 3-0; Japan bt Indonesia 3-0.
