For far too long now,India has stayed content with its doubles glories in mens tennis,making peace with the realisation that the climax of the deciding Sundays on Tour belongs to others: Europeans,Americans,Australians. Anyone,but Indians. Although carrying no ranking-points or fancy dollared prize-cheques and held on a Tuesday the Asian Games mens singles final will stake Indias claim on the singles championship,when Somdev Devvarman,Indias breakthrough whizkid of tennis in the last two years and a 6-2. 0-6,6-3 winner of the semifinal,takes on Uzbek Denis Istomin. Of course,Devvarman picked the gold at the Commonwealth Games,albeit in a depleted field,and had earlier made the Chennai Open ATP final,slaying a few giants in the 2009 draw. And Istomin may be imminently beatable even after his 6-1,6-0 mauling of Japanese Go Soeda in the semifinal,Devvarman will need to call upon all his fighting skills that were summoned on Monday,at will,after Ito Tatsuma started firing from the trenches,pushing the match into a decider. Still,the 25-year-old Indian can take mighty heart from the fourth and fifth games of the third set,when pushed to the back-corners repeatedly,and well behind the baseline he likes inhabiting. He displayed legs that were willing to dash to the net and hands stretching to deliver the counter-blow. With Ito serving at 2-1 in the third,a rally stretched to over a couple of dozen strokes changing flanks and testing the tenacity of both the forehand and backhand when Devvarman showed he wasnt the one to blink first. Playing his opponent on the backhand,he snared one out of the Japanese that sailed wide,as he dented his serve a point later. Next,with Ito constructing a point with much finesse,the Indian was left chasing the two corners even as the Japanese rushed ahead with a volley,and a scrambling Somdev lobbed it back right behind the stupefied rival,punching the air with a raw,guttural celebration. I came back from that and really fought hard to get hold of the next game from 15-40 down. Winning those two games felt good and gave me the momentum and I did a good job after that, he said post his semi-final in which the Japanese attacked Devvarmans serve in the second set to prolong the encounter. It also earned him the neutral votes,as the Chinese crowd was quick to switch sides and back the gutsy fighter,as against the error-prone Japanese,who later confessed he got too caught up in strategising ways to unnerve Devvarman,opening up his own game to distracted errors. Istomin,though temperamental like many of his Uzbek team-mates on the circuit,is unlikely to blow it up in a match as important as a gold-medal final. I will try to play it tight like today,play my best and see how it goes. I have played Somdev a couple of times before,and he is very tough, he said. Devvarman too,was cautious ahead of the finals,saying,Istomin is a very good player and I will try my best. India has never won a singles gold medal at the Asian Games,and Devvarman promises that the streak wont be extended for want of effort.
