rediff.com: Mankad recovers from the brink

Eyeing for the still-elusive Davis Cup berth in Indian team, Harsh Mankad on Thursday performed the Houdini act, beating Briton Barry Flucher, after living on the edge, to make it to the semi-finals of ITF men's Satellite tennis tournament in Delhi.

Second seeded Mankad started sluggishly, and the Brit made the Indian run around the court to take command and go up 6-3, 5-1. But then came Mankad's brilliant recovery. He won four points in a row to even the scores in the second set before some excellent double-fisted passing winners powered him to 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(7/4) victory in just under three hours.

He now meets in-form Rishi Sridhar, who upset third seeded Sandeep Kirtane 7-5, 6-2 in the fourth quarter-final.

Promising Kunj Majumdar made sure that three Indians figure in the semis when he ousted tournament's giant-killer Gwanael Gueit of France in straight sets.

Majumdar's 7-5, 6-3 win over Gueit earned him a semi-final clash against the tournament top seed Danei Udomchoke of Thailand.

The Indian, who yesterday caused an upset beating fifth seeded Vinod Sridhar, outsmarted the Frenchman with his tactical game. After going easy for first ten games of the first set, Majumdar broke Gueit in the 11th before serving out the set 7-5.

Though Gueit blasted four aces, he failed to control Majumdar's game and dropped his service in the opening game of the second set. With a break up, Majumdar lay comfortable before effecting the kill in the ninth for 6-3 win.

Udomchoke needed just an hour and 12 minutes to outclass eighth seeded Slovakian Marian Leysek 6-3, 6-2.

Udomchoke, the winner of second leg at Bangalore last week, was never troubled by Leysek, who so far had easy matches in the tournament.

Looking for a second straight win on the Indian circuit, the Thai youngster broke Leysek in the opening game of the first set and opened a comfortable 5-3 lead. Udomchoke decided to close the affair in the ninth and the left-handers' powerful groundstroke caught the Slovakian off-guard.

Problems continued aplenty for Leysek as he dropped his service in the second set early on to hand a 3-0 lead to the Thai player. Udomchoke repeated the same tactics and at 5-2 he crushed Leysek in the eighth game to win the match 6-3, 6-2.


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