8th Game was just a formality as HM was now in full throttle attacking ‘Cap’s weak second serve and hitting Return winners at will to break ‘Cap’ (when he hit a FH long) for a 6-2 first set. Starting with FH TS (top spin) winner and BH DL winner Harsh quickly had a BP 30-40… Attacking ‘Cap’s weak second serve on BP, Harsh rushed to net only to see ‘Cap’ hit a blistering passing shot (or he though) to Harsh’s BH…But Harsh had other ideas and came up with a big lunge to hit a perfect BH volley at the net to break back for 4-2 lead… 7th game again saw HM making two quick errors to be down 15-30, before a drop volley at the net saw him come back and then hold serve to go up 5-2. The Very first game saw HM showing some signs of nerve going down quickly 0-30 on his own serve… Then with a stunning FH CC winner and three errors from the Tall Slovakian, HM took the first game 1-0… This set the tune for the entire match with Harsh winners punctuating Capkovic Errors!!! Capkovic started off with a DF and quickly was down love-30… Capkovic managed to take it to 30-30, but HM with a FH Winner had a BP… With Capkovic not getting his first serve in and after an initial DF was serving weakly on his second serve… On BP, Harsh moved well with in the Baseline hitting a deep return to which Capkovic could muster only a blocked shot that flew harmlessly out… And break for HM to take a 2-0 lead… Third game saw Harsh taking a quick 40-0 lead that was highlighted by FH DL winner and Great serve and volley… And then quickly taking 3-0 lead with a good deep serve(40-15)… Capkovic started shouting to himself now, really not in his elements… Capkovic then was able to hold serve to 3-1… Then the first and only signs of trouble for HM who had an uncharacteristic Error filled game (three Errors) to be down two BP 15-40… HM could have still come back in this game, but ‘Cap’ had a lucky net chord break going his way which was heroically retrieved by HM only to see ‘Cap’ hit a DL (down the line) winner to break HM and get back into match momentarily… Now ‘Cap’ had life, but Harsh just shifted to higher gear in the 6th game. And the match started in earnest, with most of the seats in the gallery filled !!! I reached the court well in advance and once again disappointment was in store as preparations were going on for ‘cultural program’!!!! Somebody whispered about sports dance, but what followed (around 3:05 – 3:10 pm) was a dance in which no one had any interest… May be if there were some pretty girls the story would have been different( I would have probably used my zoom lens and taken some pics) … Right off the racquet, they missed the tune when they moved all the way from Court 2 to Centre court gravitating towards the crowd … My guess is they wanted to retain Harsh here in Chennai for one more day, by trampling the courts and making it unfit for play… But Mr.AnandMohan quickly stepped in and pushed them back… So why all this rambling about this ‘Cultural Program’, which has nothing to do with Harsh or Tennis match… We have a saying in Tamil which loosely translates as ‘Let the world also get the happiness that I have received’… After two dances, they luckily gave away to our star…Īt around 3:20, Capkovic entered to the muted applause, while HM entered to Thunderous applause!!!! Capkovic who earlier had squeaked past a tiring Bofors and overwhelmed sluggish Karan hoping for hat trick of wins against Indians. With Sehwag in blistering form and fast approaching a double century, I enthusiastically set out for Gymkhana club to see another Indian who has been on a similar demolition run the last few days… Two Indians tried to beat Capkovic and came out empty handed… Would Third time prove to be a charm? Hopefully to complement Keerthi's report,
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