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U-18 ITF: India’s Javia outguns Kazakh Galfinger to make finals
The second seed will be the only Indian player in the finals of the tournament as Pune’s Vaishnavi Adkar was shown the exit door by China’s Tianmi Mi.
PUNE The sun shone on the Deccan Gymkhana tennis courts after two days of cloud cover, but the game was grey for Kazakhstan’s Rostislav Galfinger as he bowed out of the semi-finals against his opponent and double’s partner, Dev Javia, in the Gadre MSLTA-ITF Junior Grade 3 U-18 Tennis Championship on Friday.
The Kazahk started the match deftly as he broke Javia’s serve, but failed to build momentum towards the end of the set. He looked weary in the following set as Javia was rampant and clasped a 6-4, 6-1 victory.
Second seed Javia will be the only Indian player in the finals of the tournament as Pune’s Vaishnavi Adkar was shown the exit door by China’s Tianmi Mi.
Adkar tried to tire her Chinese opponent out, but was unable to play her strokes due to a stiff shoulder. After a shaky start to the game, Mi was able to break Adkar’s serve twice in the final three games. In the following set, Adkar was struggling with accuracy as her wayward strokes gifted Mi a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 victory.
Javia vs Galfinger
Playing together in the doubles category, both players were aware of each other’s style of play. Galfinger was the first to get off the mark after a quick first game on his serve. The Kazakh was unable to break Javia’s powerful serves as Javia pulled level. The Indian went on to unsettle Galfinger further as he broke the Kazakh’s serve in the third game itself. He managed to repeat the feat towards the end of the first set.
In the sixth game, Javia started with a thundering ace before he managed a blowout and finished the game with another powerful ace to stamp his authority on the match. The game lacked good rallies as the only decent rally was the series of backhand slices both players played in the seventh game. Javia eventually sliced the ball into the net handing the game over to Galfinger. The 17-year-old Indian broke Galfinger’s serve again in the seventh game as he took a commanding 5-2 lead.
The deficit was cut down as Galfinger was able to break Javia’s serve in the eighth game. Playing a couple of really powerful double-handed backhand strokes, the 17-year-old Kazakh was able to tip the game in his favour. On his serve, Galfinger did not let his guard down and cut the lead down to a single game. However, the Kazakh was unable to break Javia’s serve again as the first set ended 6-4 in Javia’s favour.
In the second set, Galfinger’s performance deteriorated. In the first game, Javia registered a staggering four consecutive blowouts, breaking Galfinger’s serve twice in the process. The Kazakh was unable to nab a single point from the first four games. Galfinger finally managed to earn his first points in the fifth game as Javia was almost awarded a fifth straight win after Galfinger’s decisive shot was called out. Javia then told the chair umpire that the ball landed on the line as the decision was reversed.
However, that was the only game the Kazakh teenager won in the second set as Javia played some venomous strokes and hit accurate aces to earn a 6-1 scoreline. After beating Galfinger 6-4, 6-1, Dev Javia will now face Czech Republic’s Vitek Horak in the final of the tournament on Saturday.
Adkar vs Mi
After playing a two hour long quarter-final on Thursday, Adkar got off to a strong start as the only point Mi earned was through a double fault by Adkar. Mi bounced back in the following game to restore parity.
Playing her favoured forehand strokes, Adkar was successful in moving her opponent from end-to-end. However, the energetic Chinese rose to the challenge and was able to return the shots. Mi came extremely close to breaking Adkar’s serve in the fifth game, but the 14-year-old Indian held on to her nerves and managed to keep the point for herself after a deuce. A wrong decision by the chair umpire left Adkar frustrated in the middle of the court.
The ball, which bounced on the sideline inside Mi’s half of the court, was called ‘out’ by the umpire as Adkar dropped her racquet and stared at the official with utmost exasperation. In the following game, it seemed as if Adkar took her frustration out on the court as her shots were more powerful and her opponent had a difficult time coping with them. However, the frustration caused Adkar to over-hit some crucial shots which gifted the game to Mi.
The first ace of the match came in the sixth game, courtesy Mi. In the following game, Adkar fluffed her lines as her powerful strokes were matched by equally powerful returns from Mi. The 15-year-old Chinese finally managed to break Adkar’s serve in the seventh game, which made the Indian extremely nervy. Mi managed to defend her serve and lead 5-3.
Under pressure, Adkar faltered and gifted easy points to Mi through several errors. Seeing her opponent struggling and panicking, Mi capitalised on the situation as she broke Adkar’s serve again to take the first set. During the break, Adkar received some medical assistance as the 14-year-old was facing some trouble with her shoulder. Adkar refused to retire from the match and played on.
Not in the best shape, Adkar managed to win only two games in the second set, while Mi took full advantage of the Indian’s injury. Adkar smashed a lot of her shots into the net and eventually Mi finished the match, winning 6-3, 6-2. She will now face Russia’s top-seed Maria Sholokhova in the final of the tournament on Saturday.
After the match
“I played well from the beginning except for the part where he broke my serve. Thankfully, I was able to maintain my composure. In the second set, I started really well and I guess Rostislav [Galfinger] just gave up. It was a very friendly match as we were laughing and joking, so there was not a lot of pressure on either one of us,” said Dev Javia, finalist, India.
“She [Vaishnavi Adkar] played really well considering the discomfort she was in. My favourite moment in the match was when I was finally able to break her serve. Looking at the score, it looks like an easy victory, but it was actually a very difficult game. In the end, I am happy that I progressed into the final.” said Tianmi Mi, finalist, China.
Horak shocks top-seed in semis; Sholokhova breezes into the final.
Czech Republic’s Vitek Horak has been the surprise package in the tournament so far. The 17-year-old managed to pull-off another upset on Friday as he eliminated tournament’s top seed Patron Hanchaikul, from Thailand, in the semi-finals. The unseeded Czech dumped Hanchaikul out in straight sets after winning an enthralling match 6-2, 6-4. Initially, Horak’s doubles’ partner and compatriot, Mathias Musil was tipped to make it to the final four. However, fifth seed Musil bowed out of the tournament in the round of 16.
In the girls’ category, top-seed Maria Sholokhova kept her prolific, undefeated run intact after she eased past eighth seed Mei Hasegawa 6-4, 6-4. The Russian is not only defeated the Japanese with ease, but also managed to win yet another match in straight sets. The 15-year-old is yet to drop a set in the tournament. Unseeded Tianmi Mi will be the underdog when she faces Sholokhova in the final on Saturday.
Top-seeded teams win doubles crown
After facing off against each other in the semi-finals of the singles category, Javia and Galfinger’s top-seed team claimed an easy straight sets win in the final of the boys’ doubles category against the second seeded team of Aryaan Bhatia and Uddyavir Singh. Javia and Galfinger won the match 6-1, 6-2.
In the girls category, the top seeded team of Taiwan’s Yu-Yun Li and India’s Vipasha Mehra downed the second-seeded side of Japan’s Kirara Morioka and Russia’s Maria Sholokhova in the final which went into the super tie-breaker. Li and Mehra won the match 2-6, 7-6(8), 10-3 to claim the crown.
Results
Semifinals - singles
Boys: 2-Dev Javia (India) bt 3-Rostislav Galfinger (Kazakhstan) 6-4, 6-1
Vitek Horak (Czech Republic) bt 1-Patorn Hanchaikul (Thailand) 6-2, 6-4
Girls: 1-Maria Sholokhova (Russia) bt 8-Mei Hasegawa (Japan) 6-4, 6-4
Tianmi Mi (China) bt Vaishnavi Adkar (India) 6-3, 6-2
Finals - Doubles
Boys: 1-Dev Javia (India) & Rostislav Galfinger (Kazakhstan) bt Aryaan Bhatia & Uddyavir Singh (India) 6-1, 6-2
Girls: 1-Yu-Yun Li (Taiwan) & Vipasha Mehra (India) bt 2-Kirara Morioka (Japan) & Maria Sholokhova (Russia) 2-6, 7-6(8), 10-3
