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| Sunday, 2 May 2004 |
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India turn tables on top-seeded Australia to win 2-0 by LAL GUNESEKERA India beat Australia 2-0 to win the Junior Davis Cup (under-16) by BNP Paribas (Asia/Oceania qualifying Zone) at the National Tennis Centre (NTC) in Greenpath yesterday to move into the World Group of next year's contest together with Chinese Taipei and Japan. Australia too, will figure in the same group as the losing finalists in Colombo. India who were seeded No. 2 beat the top seeded Aussies through their two singles players Jeevan Neduncheziyan and Rupesh Roy. The former beat Matt Symons in straight sets (6-2, 6-4), while, the latter was taken into three sets by Steven Goh before winning at 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. India beat Australia by the same margin in the 2002 under-14 Junior World Cup final of the Asia-Oceania zone also in Colombo, with the same duo beating the same Aussie due in the zonal final, which saw the delighted Intian non-playing captain Sandeep Kirthane, comment that India will not object if the ITF makes a late change for the World Group from Barcelona, Spain to Colombo. Neduncheziyan, a 15-year-old from Chennai took 108 minutes to sweep aside Symons, while Roy who is seeded 51st in the junior world rankings, won through with his nagging consistency. Sri Lanka who were seeded seventh and expected to move into the first four, finished in fifth place out of the 17 countries. Last year the Lankans finished in sixth place. They took fifth place after beating South Korea 2-1. S. Nishendran lost to Yo-Sup Yoon in straight sets (1-6, 2-6) in little over an hour, while Emmanuel Sri Lanka's 16-year-old national champion won his singles over Hwi-Jin Hong in straights sets (6-4, 6-1). Then Emmanuel and Nishendran partnered to win the decisive doubles over Yoon and Hong 7-6, 1-6, 6-2. The battle for the third and fourth positions were 1-all between Japan and Chinese Taipei when the rains came down in the decisive doubles match. Japan's Fumiaki Kita won his singles over Tung-Han Lee 7-5, 6-3, while Taipei's Hsin-Han Lee won his singles over Kei Nishikori 6-3, 1-6, 6-1. Then in the decisive doubles, Taipei's Lee and Yuo-Cheng Wang won the first set 7-6, while Japan's Kita and Nishikori were leading 2-1 in the second when the rains came down. But both countries entered the World Group. With Sri Lanka finishing in fifth place, South Korea, Thailand and Uzbekistan were placed sixth, seventh and eighth respectively, while the other countries who competed in Colombo, were New Zealand, Philippines, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Singapore and Syria, while China withdrew at the last moment. |
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