T A M S – Bangalore

TO CHECK THE DRAWS OF THE BOYS AND GIRLS UNDER 12 NATIONALS CLICK THE BELOW LINK

http://tams.in/tournaments/tams-under-12-aita-ts-nationals-jan-2014/

 

 

Pls click on the below link to go to the draw sheet

 

http://tams.in/tournaments/ktppa-dr-sampath-loganandan-cs-draw-sheet-2014/

This Tournament was a see-saw of events for the Tams(Tennis And More Sporting) boys, the top half of the boys draw was loaded with a strong contingent of tams guys…Out of the top 8 seeds four seeds were from Tams and three were in the top half of the draw..

The tournament began with the same fanfare and proceeded till the pre-quarters (round of 16) without much of a heart burn. The first causality from Tams was Madhavan (seed 4) who lost to in-form Rajesh Kannan.  Then Arjun Sriram (Top Seed) from Tams had to play Rohan Arun who is also from Tams and is a student of Gear Foundation school. Rohan’s performance was excellent throughout the season; he was coming into the prequarter with an excellent win against the seeded & experienced Abeer Dubey. The match started out with a tight competition with both boys trading blows and games before couple of line calls went against Rohan and thus resulted in his loss of focus which got him derailed. Rohan lost a hard fought match but was soon to say that his loss of focus on the line calls was the event that triggered the result against his favor, A lesson learnt at the end but with a price….

Quarter-finals:

Top Seed Arjun had to play Adarsh Arun (also from TAMS). Adarsh had an outstanding win in the previous round against Nikhil Niranjan, after trailing 0-4, he pulled himself to beat Nikhil 8-6. Adarsh was quick to finish the first set with just 2 unforced errors and later vanquished a fighting Arjun to win the match and thus entering the semi-finals

ENTER third seed Sandesh Kantimahanti student of TAMS & Gear Foundation School, his Quarters was lined up with Deepak A. Big hitting Deepak can create a buzz whenever & wherever he plays and he did just that against Sandesh, he ran away to a 3-0 lead in the first set before Sandesh found his form & his winning ways to take the 1^st set 5-4(tie breaker score 7-4)and then the next set at 4-0, with that the match..

Our Excitement at Tams was hanging in a balance, excited coz 2 of the 4 semifinalists were from TAMS but then they were to play each other in the Semi’s.

The match started with the in-form Adarsh racing to a 2-0 lead, it was after that our very own master of comebacks woke up and pitched in a heavy duel, Sandesh took the 1^st set without even blinking twice at 6-2 after being down 0-2.. The second set  raced to a 5-2 lead in Sandesh’s favor but Adarsh mounted a huge late fight to level the 2^nd set at 5-5, not long before it went down to the wire at 6-6 and the Tie Breaker(race to 7 points with a difference of 2 points). Sandesh showed some brilliant consistency which saw him win the tiebreaker, the set and the match.

Finals :

Finals is always a nerve wrecker even for some seasoned Pro’s, Now imagine Sandesh all of eleven years, playing his first Under 12 Nationals. Not only was he on the line but his entire support team right from his Driver, to the tennis Academy watch-man to the manager, his On-court Hitter to the Ball Feeder, the parents (with his dad on a flight to the US) and his coach(That’s me, my patience is legendary as most of you who is reading this should already be aware of). I had to be there to see for myself how it will unfold.

The Finals was against the Heavy hitting Sharaniyan. The match went even in the 1^st set before Sharaniyan had a set point at 5-4. An unforced error from him saw Sandesh level the 1^st set at 5-5 and then the set went into a tie breaker. Sandesh kept his cool and took the tie breaker at 7-2, with that the 1^st set. The 2^nd set was bull dozed by Sharaniyan with him racing to a 3-0 lead, again our master of comebacks caught up to make it 2-3, but even before we could sigh a relief he lost the next game to be down 2-4. Sandesh realized this was it.. he came up with a string of great shots to win the next 4 games in a row and with that he wrapped up his 2^nd set and the match. His first Nationals title.. He truly deserved it for the amount of effort he pumped in for the last 2 years…. Kudos to his hard work. Keep it up boy…

 

 

Pls click on the below link to go to the draw sheet

 

http://tams.in/tournaments/tams-aita-under-10-draws/

Arjun won the Under-12 National Ranking Tournament conducted at Mahila Seva Samaj School in Bangalore.

The tournament opened with lots of expectations since we had the top 3 seeds from TAMS, few experienced fellas and a bunch of first timers.. We did great on the opening day with 10 winning out of 12 who went from here but the day didnt wear off without disappointment. Rishikesh exited the tournament playing against an in-form Nitin Vegesna(who made it to the quarters himself), that was indeed not planned..

Quarter-finals:

3 out of the 4 quarter-finals had Tams Boys in them which was great but we were hoping for more…. We wanted 3 out of 4 semifinalists. Greed agreed but we are what we are and we have been there – done that and it was well within reach.. Top seed Arjun had the toughest of the 4 quarters, he had Karthikeyan Ravi to whom he had lost to in their previous meeting (in a semifinals few months back). Arjun opened brilliantly to wrap up the first set with just 4 unforced errors. The second set saw the whole match turned upside down with Karthik leading 3-1, Arjun showed great nerves and fighting ability to bounce back and win the 2nd set and match with relative ease..

Playing alongside was Madhavan Manoj, the first 2 sets was a see-saw with Madhavan losing the first set and blanking Rajesh Kannan in the 2nd which then went into a super tie breaker(race to 10 points with a difference of 2 points). Madhavan’s big groundstrokes let him down with a few close calls going against him and hence the match..

Next Quarters had Sandesh and the 2nd seed from Tams playing against Manish G they share a 1 all win-loss record with each other. Sandesh had been working hard on his attacking game, moving away from his seasoned defensive game which the world he runs under associates him with… Sandesh and Manish traded blows & the sets as well and it again boiled down to the Super tie breaker. 4 lets went against Sandesh in what would have been a close win going his way but that cost him his momentum, confidence, set and the match. It was indeed an upsetting  day for us at TAMS with 2 of our 3 top seeds exiting at the stage.. Dreams broken but not our spirit, we awaited the final day to start with the semi-finals..

Semifinals ::

Arjun had to play Rajesh Kannan(the one who beat Madhavan) in the semis, Arjun continued his fine form from the previous day to vanquish Rajesh 0 & 1..

Finals ::

Arjun had to play Manish G (the one who beat Sandesh) in the Finals after a 2 hr break the same day.. The weather was tricky with bright, hot sun and couple of spells of rain in between.. The match started with scorching heat from the clear skies and the temperature soared from the 22 odd degrees to 35 degrees in a matter of few minutes.. Match opened with both the guys trading games till 2 all. Arjun was ill at ease but he somehow pulled through and won the next game to make it 3-2 in the first set..

Then there was a situation with Arjun declaring that he was dizzy and disoriented.. He was given a medical time out which did a wee bit of wonder, giving him enough time to recover from the heat. Once out of the woods, he was like the sun in the clear skies.. There was no turning back till he wrapped up the first set 6-2.

The 2nd set saw a spirited fight back from Manish at the start of the set but Arjun was quick to close all doors on his opponent to run away with the set and match at 6-1. Thus winning his second crown for the fortnight..And thus avenging his mates(Sandesh & Madhavan) loss at the hands of Rajesh & Manish according to Arjun…

 

Arjun receiving his Award and Arjun with Manish G the runner-up

 

The Snap Shot from the Times of India Bangalore  edition on 26th May 2013