National Tennis Championships 2019: Dalwinder Singh braves heat, dogged opponent to stay on course for second title

Dalwinder Singh walked across comfortably to the net at the end of a gruelling battle on Court 3 at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA). His opponent Ishaque Eqbal laboured to the net under the intense Delhi heat. Eqbal’s camp, seated front row, suggested he use his energy smartly. The thermometer would have shown 34 degree Celsius in the Indian capital and for the past week, or more, these players had been pushing themselves to the limit for the lucrative title, and the small matter of Rs 3 lakh prize money that would go to the men’s singles title winner. So the calls from Eqbal’s camp in the first set to conserve his energy made all the more sense.

Dalwinder, seeded sixth from Punjab and the 2017 champion, is not new to the pressure situation and grinding it out. Neither is Eqbal, seeded third and ranked 13th domestically, who toppled higher seed Faisal Qamar in the first round last year. And there was little to separate the two — which showed on court — and in the 7-6 (1), 7-5 scoreline. Both players had a break apiece early on in either set but couldn’t go on to make it count.

In the first set, it was Dalwinder who led, breaking the West Bengal player, but was broken soon after to throw away the advantage. With nothing to separate them, the match went into a tiebreaker where Dalwinder eked out key points early on to up the pressure level. Eqbal did not help himself with errors on both wings to drop the set.

The second started with Eqbal breaking Dalwinder’s big serve. And just when it appeared this match could be straightforward for the 23-year-old, Eqbal threw a spanner in the works. He looked on serving it out at 5-4 in the second set but produced an error-filled show to suddenly lose way — not just mentally but physically.

In the subsequent game, Eqbal resorted to moonballing from the back and pushed Dalwinder into taking the ball early and go for it all. That is exactly what he did but Eqbal was on hand to get to the ball but only sent it into the net. This was a sign of physical fatigue and it was immediately confirmed with the 21-year-old hobbling across to the chair. Except, he didn’t take the chair at all. Eqbal resorted to stretching himself and physically egging himself to keep this match going. Unfortunately for him and his camp, that was too much to wish for. Unable to move, Eqbal tried to power his way to extending the match but bar a glorious backhand winner down the line, he couldn’t do much.

“I got casual in parts during the match. I did that early on and then again in the second set. Had I started the second set better, this match may have been over sooner. When the tiebreak arrived, I didn’t give him a chance. I tried to go for consistency in the tiebreak to ensure he can’t attack me. I knew whoever wins the first set will make an impact. After that he also came under pressure and was getting mentally weaker,” Dalwinder told Firstpost.com following the win.

“The entire game is built on fitness. A player can hit with whatever speed but if we’re fit, we can get to it. In the second set he was cramping at 5-6 and was out. The fitter a person is, the longer they can stay on the court. Had it been a fitter player, this could have gone to a third set,” he added on the importance of fitness in tennis.

For Dalwinder, the Nationals are a step forward but ITF tournaments would be the way to go. In 2015, India had four Challenger level tournaments and 19 Futures. The year after, it reduced significantly to two Challengers and six Future events. Now, there is only one Challenger event with nothing for the upcoming players.

“In India there are no big tournaments other than this. There are no ITF level tournaments and it is not good enough to play AITA tournaments. Until 2015, there were multiple options for ITF tournaments but they’ve dwindled to zero now. Some players quit the game because they don’t have the budget to play outside India. I’m lucky that I have the backing. Harvest Tennis Academy based in Jassowal, Punjab, has been backing me for the last 15 years. They take care of all the expenses in playing tournaments outside of India,” he stated.

Before heading off to China, Nigeria and Uganda to play ITF tournaments, Singh would hope to win the National title for a second time. For that, he would have to get past the top seed Nikki K Poonacha of Andhra Pradesh who beat Prajwal Dev 6-4, 6-3. The other semi-final will see Kunal Anand of Delhi take on Aryan Goveas of Maharashtra. Anand got the better of Nitin Kumar Sinha - who had beaten a much more experienced Vishnu Vardhan in the first round - in straight sets. Goevas needed three sets to down Suraj Prabodh 6-3, 6-7, 6-3.

RESULTS

Men’s Singles

Dalwinder Singh (seeded 6) bt Ishaque Eqbal 7-6(4), 7-5; Nikki Poonacha (Seeded 1) bt Prajwal Dev 6-4,6-3; Kunal Anand (seeded 4) bt Nitin Kumar Sinha (Seeded 7) 6-3, 7-6(5), Aryan Goveas (seeded 2) bt Suraj Prabodh 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3.

Women’s Singles

Sowjanya Bavisetti (seeded 1) bt Salsa Aher 6-2, 6-2; Prerna Bhambri (seeded 4) bt Shreya Tatavarthy 6-2, 7-5; Vaidehi Chaudhari (seeded 3) bt Sravya Shivani 6-1,6-1; Jagmeet Kaur bt Bhuvana Kalva (seeded 2) 6-4,6-2.