India walloped in ATF Asia Cup
India's tale of woes continued in the ATF Asia Cup 2000 tennis tournament in Delhi on Wednesday.
Playing without Leander Paes and Nirupama
Vaidyanathan, the Indian men's and women's teams looked very ordinary as they went down to Korea and China respectively.
Doubles specialist Mahesh Bhupathi was outclassed by Korean No.2 player Yong-Il
Yoon in straight sets and top Korean Hyung-Taik Lee made an easy work of Davis
Cupper Syed Fazaluddin. The two Koreans then combined to beat the
Indian pair of Nitin Kirtane and Fazaluddin to give their side a 3-0 verdict.
In the women's event, both Shruti Dhawan and Sai
Jayalakshmi squandered early leads to hand China an easy win.
The Indian women, who had lost to Thailand in their first encounter in the three-team event on Tuesday, were condemned to third
place without a single point.
Thailand and China will play an inconsequential rubber on
Friday after a day's rest on Thursday.
Coming here soon after a heartbreaking loss in the final
of the ATP World doubles championship in Bangalore, Bhupathi
looked out of sorts and struggled with his returns.
Having played very little singles this season,
Bhupathi's ATP ranking has plummetted to 892, which forced the
team management to name him as their second player.
Bangkok Asian Games gold medallist Yoon made most of
Bhupathi's unforced errors and raced to a 3-0 lead in the
first set with a break in the second game which was enough for
him to take the set 6-3.
The Indian's groundstrokes failed to help his cause as the
ball often found the net or went wide after long rallies.
The Korean number two made his intentions clear in the
second set also as he opened up a 4-2 lead with a break in the
fifth game, which went to deuce six times.
Though Bhupathi had stretched Yoon to deuce in the
earlier game, the Korean prevailed with his all-court game.
Bhupathi held his serve in the ninth, but Yoon was
already celebrating as he took 40-0 lead serving for the match
and then blasted an ace to finish the encounter in style in an
hour and 10 minutes.
With Harsh Mankad, ranked 565 on the ATP list, made to
sit out, the responsibility fell on Fazaluddin to keep India's
hopes alive.
But his in-form opponent Hyung-Taik Lee gave no such room
as he clinically dissected every game to his advantage and
scored 6-3, 6-3 win in an hour.