Karman Kaur Thandi, Raveena Kingsley crash out.
By Sujeet Rajan
FLUSHING MEADOWS, NEW YORK: The terrific and inspiring run of the young Indian American tennis sensation from Fairfax, Virginia, Natasha Subhash, 14, came to an end at the 2015 US Open tennis championships at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center here, losing her second round girls singles match in straight sets to the 11th seed Fanny Stollar of Hungary, on Tuesday.
Subhash later lost her first round doubles match too.
Subhash and her partner Anna Li, 15, were hoping for a far easier match after their scheduled match featuring the No. 1 seed in the girls’ singles, Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic, retired with an injury from her second round singles match against Viktoria Kuzmova of Slovakia, leading 4-1.
But it didn’t really help as Subhash and Li found it tough going against a team from Colombia, featuring Maria Fernanda Herazo Gonzalez and Yuliana Monroy, going down to the duo in three sets, 4-6, 6-1, 8-10.
Subhash, who had won three singles matches in four days – including two qualifying matches – to set up a meeting with Stollar, was hampered by an injury to her right knee – which restricted her court movement and serve, and fatigue from an over three-hour hard match against the Italian Beatrice Torelli, the previous day, on Monday.
Stollar, who turns 17 in November, has an impressive serve and hits punishingly on both flanks of the court with a powerful forehand. She has won one singles and two doubles titles on the ITF tour, and won the 2015 Wimbledon girls’ doubles title partnering Dalma Gálfi, also of Hungary.
Stollar continued her winning ways on Wednesday in the third round, beating Russia’s E. Rybakina in straight sets 7-6 (7-4), 6-4. Stollar, however, was upset in the girls doubles, partnering with Galfi. They were upset by Kayla Day and Sofia Kenin of the United States in straight sets, 2-6, 3-6.
Subhash never really got going in the match against Stollar except for the early part of the second set, when she played error-free tennis and broke Stollar to take a 2-0 lead, and then ran up a 30-0 lead on her serve.
The Hungarian looked rattled as she had assumed the match was as good as over. But then Subhash double faulted twice in that game and found the net far too many times to let slip the advantage. The hot scorching day, with temperatures hitting the low 90s, didn’t help her either. Subhash had begun in similar error-prone vein in the first set. She failed to find consistent rhythm.
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Subhash, however, impressed one and all with her classy and quality tennis throughout the course of the tournament. She gave ample proof of all the makings of a future champion, playing the kind of intelligent, aggressive tennis that is likely to soon be a challenge for the best in the world in the junior girls’ circuit.
Along with Subhash, the other Indian American player in the fray in the girls juniors, Raveena Kingsley, of Maryland, also lost her second round match, eliminated by Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus in three sets, 6-3, 4-6, 3-6.
Kingsley, a fine athlete, seemed to implode in the second set after being a set and a break up, and close to sailing through to the third round. She began, however, to hit the ball too aggressively, as if on a practice court trying to paint the baseline. But far too often it sailed over the sidelines and the back court, gave a sudden reprieve to the teenager from Belarus.
It was a big disappointment for Kingsley, who was also given a wild card to play in the women’s draw. She had stunned a former top 100 player, Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic, in the first qualifying round. Hlavackova seems to have put that upset behind her. Partnering Lukasz Kubot of Poland, she defeated Anastasia Rodionova (Australia) and Max Mirnyi (Belarus), 6-4, 6-4, to enter the mixed doubles semi-finals, on Wednesday.
Karman Kaur Thandi of India, who had won a hard fought, see-saw battle with unforced errors galore against Russian Evgeniya Levashova 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 to enter the girls singles third round, on Tuesday, also exited from the championship, losing in straight sets to the 2nd seed Galfi of Hungary, 4-6, 6-7 (3-7), on Wednesday.
India’s only other hope in the girls doubles, Pranjala Yadlapalli, also bade farewell to the competition. Tornado Alicia Black and Ingrid Neel, of the United States, beat Jessica Hinojosa Gomez, of Mexico, and Yadlapalli, 6-1, 6-0. Yadlapalli had earlier lost in the girls singles first round.
There was more bad news for India in the men’s doubles, as Rohan Bopanna, partnering F. Mergea, lost to D.Inglot, of Great Britain, and R.Lindstedt, of Sweden, 6-7 (2-7), 3-6. ‘
The day only got worse for Bopanna, as he lost his mixed doubles semi-final match too.
The fancied pair of Leander Paes and Martina Hingis, seeded 4th, comfortably disposed off the challenge of Bopanna and his partner Yung-Jan Chan 6-2, 7-5 in the semi-finals of the mixed doubles competition. This is the third Grand Slam final for the pair of Paes and Hingis this year.
In the final, Paes and Hingis will face the unseeded team of Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sam Querrey of the United States.
Hingis has a shot for a double title here.
Partnering Sania Mirza, with whom she won the Wimbledon title this year, Hingis comfortably beat the Italian pair of Sara Errani and Flavia Pennetta 6-4, 6-1, to enter the women’s doubles final.
(This story was updated on September 9, 2015)