Jan 31, 2009

Sport - Tennis;Yuki clinches boys singles title in Australian Open

Yuki Bhambri created history, becoming only the fourth Indian to win a junior Grand Slam singles title following his emphatic straight-set win over Alexandros-Ferdinandos Georgoudas of Germany in the boys final at the Melbourne Park in Melbourne on Saturday.

Top seed Yuki swept aside unseeded Georgousdas 6-3 6-1 in 57 minutes to pocket his first Grand Slam singles title.

The other Indians in the elite list are Ramanathan Krishnan (1954 Juniour Wimbledon champion), his son Ramesh Krishnan (1970 Wimbledon and French Open junior champion) and Leander Paes (1990 Junior Wimbledon and Junior US Open champion).

The Delhi boy, who lost in the semi-finals here last year, was at his dominant best from the start and seemed determined to lift the title this time as he broke his German opponent in the fourth game of the opening set to go up 3-1 and then maintained his composure to seal the first set in 31 minutes.

With his nose ahead with a set lead, Yuki didn't look back and demolished Georgousdas 6-1 in just 26 minutes in the second set to register his first Slam title.

Yuki's dominance in the match was visible from the fact that he hit 29 winners as compared to his opponent's 21. He also converted four out of the seven break points and didn't provide a single window of opportunity to the German to break his serve.

Yuki, partnering Chinese Taipei's Liang-Chi Huang, also made it to the semi-finals of the boys doubles event but were shocked yesterday by Russian-Japanese pair of Mikhal Biryukov and Yasutaka Uchiyama 3-6 1-6.

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