Day Twelve - HunFord Cup Event One Final

A fitting climax to the epic tournament. Well actually not the tournament, but to the event 1 of the tournament. This special final of the event 1 was even more special which started with the cake distribution by Sampath on occasion of his wife’s b’day. Then the crowd was wintness to the epic marathon of the event 1. This match was fittingly “The Match of the Tournament” for the Event 1 group. Raj and Sampath taking on Kanchan and Nishanth in the epic battle. The teams had already faced each other in the leagues where Raj and Sampath prevailed over Kanchan and Nishanth by good margin. But the performance of Kanchan and Nishanth in the semis was unforgettable where they crushed their opponent to win a single sided match.

The first serve of the game was started by Raj, known for his fierce serves in the event 1. Kanchan and Nishanth displayed their cool game to clinch the first game taking an early lead. The wristy shots from Nishanth and amazinlgy lofted shots from both right as well as left hand by Kanchan ensured that they will have a smooth ride to the title. Soon Raj and Sampath were seen trailing at 4 – 1. Then Raj and Sampath started the epic fightback of the tournament going on to win the next 5 games in a row. This marathon ride from Raj and Sampath saw Nishanth and Kanchan squandering an early lead of 4 – 1, to follow by 4 – 6. All this while crowd witness some of the most lenghty rallies, I would say not only of the event 1 but of the entire tournament. This included shots ranging from deftly played passes across the nets to unbelievly played lofted shots from the baseline. Although the game canot be called a fast paced but had enough class to show all the beginners to how to play the classy tennis. Wide range of shots were also accompanied by too many startegy changes by the players as sometimes Raj and sometimes Kanchan came upto net to counter attack each other. Where Raj and Sampath were trying to attack Kanchan, Kanchan held her nerve to return most of the shots to the other side.
Very soon 6 – 7, Nishanth was serving for two match points. These words seemed to have fuelled energy in all the four players as we witnessed two most lengthiest ralliesof the match with all the four players running all around the court – Kanchan and Nishanth in an effort to save the game, Raj and Sampath in the desire to finish off the game. The efforts of Kanchan & Nishanth bore fruit when the match was locked at 7 -7 and now the game was on to 9, no tie breakers. While Kanchan was starting to tire down and Nishanth was playing some loose shots, Raj and Sampath upped their tempo playing some delicate drop shots accompanied by ferocious forehand shots. At this moment we saw the best out of the two teams when the match went on to 8 – 8. Very soon the tiredness and frustation was very much visible on Kanchan when she made some unforced errors and Nishanth played a couple of loose shots. Serving at 8-9, Nishanth made a double fault but still scraped through to deuce, but Raj and Sampath held on to their nerves finishing off the match in the third duece of the game, wining this encounter of the nerves and the title of the event 1.
Folks if you missed out on this one you missed the match of the tournament where undoubtedly the two best teams in the event 1 were playing their best tennis of the tournament. Raj and Sampath played equally well to clinch the title after being down at 4-1 and going on to win this marathon battle of nerves. However nobody would disagree that Kanchan was clearly the player of the match picking and returning some of the most difficult ones. Guys tune in for more another epic battle between Nagesh / Supriya and Vinu / Apurva is still to follow. If the beginners Finale was fun, this experts finale is going to be rocking. Be there for the rocking finale of the rocking tournament and award distribution crermony.

Final Score :
Raj / Sampath bt Kanchan/ Nishanth : 10 – 8

Story and Photo by Ajeet and Mani.