Puneites pack a punch

NEW DELHI, November 5: Ever since they made the Davis Cup team in tandem, the phone has never stopped ringing in the Kirtane brothers' Pune...

NEW DELHI, November 5: Ever since they made the Davis Cup team in tandem, the phone has never stopped ringing in the Kirtane brothers8217; Pune home. They spend a good part of the day accepting requests for interviews, photo sessions, cutting ribbons and all that jazz. And now that Arjuna Awardee Gaurav Natekar has also shifted base from Mumbai to Pune, that makes it three Puneites playing the Asia Cup. But somehow, the media glare hasnn8217;t been all that on Natekar. So, the music freak makes up for it by pumping up the volume to such levels that it wakes up the neighbours in the dead of night. And guess who stays opposite his house 8212; Sandeep Kirtane. Anyway, Natekar fought off a fever and a reputation of being over the hill with an inspired display on Wednesday and kept India A8217;s hopes alive.

Welcome support

For two consecutive days when they lost, the Filipinos8217; only audience was their interpreter and the Filipino Ambassador. But on a cold Wednesday morning, they had some additional audience. A couple of Filipino air hostesses, who touched down in the Capital yesterday and met them at the team hotel during dinner, turned up at the DTA and sat through all their matches against Thailand. No prizes for guesing who won!

Meanwhile, the Ambassador, got pretty worked up about the litter lying all over the stands, picked up a plastic bag and cleared out the coke cans, banana peels and other trash. Maybe the spectators at the DTA will take a cue from that.

DTA Mathemagic

The DTA may have done well to rope in so many sponsors at such a short notice, but the guys who coughed up Rs 10,000 for each of the stalls must be wondering at the wisdom of taking them up. For thus far they have hardly any business worth the name. But if Anil Khanna, the DTA8217;s secretary8217;s word is anything to go by, things could look up as the weekend nears.

For one, the plan is to have 360 kids come and play mini-tennis and obviously accompanying those kids would be their parents. And then of course there should be the attraction of seeing India play the semis and hopefully, the final.

That apart, Khanna, former National champ Asif Ismail, and Singapore-based ATF official S Uthrapathy are to select the best player of the tournament for whom a 29-inch Akai television set is waiting at the courtside.