The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Agut subdues Medvedev
SINGLES FINAL
SOMEHOW, ROBERTO Bautista Agut got to the ball. Still it wasn’t the most inspiring of returns. Daniil Medvedev had slapped a powerful 194 kmph serve down the centre on Bautista’s forehand side. The Spaniard barely reached, lobbing back a ball that fell harmlessly in the centre of court.
Medvedev is a tall six-foot-six specimen. True to his height, he has a dominating serve and a booming forehand. Bautista’s return was one he would have expected to kill off with ease. Instead, he shot it straight back at Bautista.
The world number 14 has developed a reputation of being expressionless. A win, loss, point gained or dropped will never elicit an emotion. He didn’t seem surprised at Medvedev’s bland shot. But he took advantage of it. A backhand cross-court won him the break of serve. He was now 5-4 up in the second set having won the first. For a change, he’d offer more than just a punch in the air.
“Vamos!” His first real show of emotion in the entire final.
Four swift points later, the roar would get louder, as Bautista picked up his first ever Chennai Open title 6-3, 6-4.
At 28, the Spaniard had notched up his fifth ATP title on tour. A late bloomer, his game has found a dogged consistency that heavily relies on topspin groundstrokes and a kick serve that almost always falls in the 180 kmph range. A recent surge in fitness has boosted his style of play, giving him the ability to force opponents into making mistakes rather than himself needing to kill off points with his groundstrokes.
It’s a style that saw him get the better of Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters last year.
At Chennai, he came across a 20year-old Russian who is a part of the ATP’S highly anticipated ‘Next Gen’ group of players. And India’s sole ATP tour event has played host to many members of that category. Last year, Borna Coric reached the final. This year it was Medvedev.
His towering serve initially didn’t get much support from the groundstrokes. Medvedev’s backhand, in particular, faltered in the first set, as he kept crashing his shot into the net. And Bautista’s resilience found the break in as early as the fourth game of the first set.
In the second, the world number 99 found a bit of form. The groundstrokes had more meaning and purpose, as he started killing off points with ease. Bautista’s rallycentric play was finally being challenged.
At 1-1 in the second set, Bautista on serve, Medvedev matched his higher-ranked opponent shot for shot in a gripping 30-shot rally that ended in the Russian’s favour. The backhand improved too. Bautista had drawn Medvedev to the net and lobbed a shot to the baseline. On the run, backwards, the youngster swivelled and played a backhand crosscourt winner.
But Bautista’s experience made the difference. Medvedev was in his first ever ATP final in his two years on tour, while Bautista turned professional in 2005 – reaching the final here in 2013 as well. There was a calmness in the way he approached the tie. The meticulously consistent, often monotonous, style was sound and what made the difference in the final.
It’s what has helped the late bloomer break from being a player languishing in the lower half of the top 100 ranks, in early 2014, to a skilful frequenter in the top 20.
There was a calmness in the way Agut approached the tie. The meticulously consistent, often monotonous, style was sound and what made the difference in the final.
ROHAN BOPANNA started the match with an ace. A thunderous drive that measured well over the 190 kmph mark, it caught Divij Sharan off guard. Another example of Bopanna’s trademark booming serve. It was the first omen — in the very first point of the first all-indian Chennai Open doubles final – that the 36-year-old would be the one to swing the match.
Still, the opening ace was among the slower ones he would muster on his first serve. He’d push things up a notch with a 205 kmph strike, and another measuring 206. But that was just one area in which he would dominate.
Break point, in the second game of the final, on Sharan’s serve. True to their tactics, Purav Raja asked his partner to serve down the T, to Bopanna’s backhand side. The idea was to get the world number 28 to play his shot back to Sharan, to which Raja would intercept with his trademark dropshot dink over the net. Only, Bopanna is India’s highest-ranked player.
The return he mustered was a powerful thump down the line that blazed past Raja. A bludgeoning one-handed backhand that gave Bopanna and Jeevan the first break of serve. And the early momentum to seal the title 6-3, 6-4.
Among the four Indian players on court, Jeevan was the most inexperienced in the doubles game. He spent most of the 2016 season plying his trade in Challenger events — winning two titles in Nanjing, China and Karshi, Uzbekistan.
Raja and Sharan, in turn, have been scratching the surface of the higher ATP levels, winning four Challengers and an ATP 250 title last year. Bopanna, meanwhile, is a veteran at the higher echelons of the sport. A winner of 14 ATP titles previously, he had the experience to guide his partner to his first ever ATP championship.
“He told me to just have fun and believe in my strokes. He kept me in the moment to make sure the final stage didn’t get the better of me,” Jeevan says. “The plan for me was to just start the point when I was receiving. It’s hard facing a lefty’s (Sharan) swinging serve and Purav’s kick serve. I just had to get the ball back in play.”
Bopanna would do the rest
Towering over the others at six-footthree, the former world number three made his size count at the net, especially on Jeevan’s serve. Sharan and Raja found it difficult to get past Bopanna to attack Jeevan – the weaker link in the team. Even on return, Bopanna proved his greater stature.
“It was hard serving at 180 when the return shot would be over 200,” mentions Raja. “He kept hitting the line, and that’s what makes him one of the best players in doubles for the last decade. He counteracts whatever we could do. And Jeevan played a good supporting hand.”
The backhands were colossal. The forehands possibly even bigger. At the deciding point with Raja on serve, Bopanna slammed back a return that Raja could not control. It gave Bopanna and Jeevan the break of serve to go up 5-3 in the first set.
Bopanna slammed two aces in the next game to serve out the set.
He would step up to the baseline to serve out the match as well – clocking a massive 201 and Raja could only shank the ball into the stands.
The all-indian final ensured there would be an Indian champion at the Chennai Open for the first time since 2012, when Leander Paes partnered Janko Tipsarevic to the title. A year earlier, Paes paired up with Mahesh Bhupathi to win their fifth Chennai Open title — the last time an Indian pair had won it.
Bopanna, too, has experience of being in a title clash at the SDAT Tennis Stadium. In 2006, he was the losing finalist along with Prakash Amritraj.
This was only the second time he’d made it to the title decider, and for him, it comes at an ideal time.
“Last year was rough for me. I didn’t win a title last year. So it’s great to start a new season with a title immediately,” Bopanna says. Jeevan’s doubles career, meanwhile, has got off the mark. And a lot had to do with Bopanna’s presence.
The senior player’s superior ranking allowed the pair a spot among the 16 teams in the doubles. And it was Bopanna’s skill, experience and guidance throughout the tournament that won them the title.
The Indian doubles star later tweeted a video of the four finalists celebrating the historic occasion by cutting a cake. After all the controversy that has plagued Indian tennis in the recent past, finally there was a sign of camaraderie and togetherness.