India walloped in ATF Asia Cup

India's tale of woes continued in the ATF Asia Cup 2000 tennis tournament in Delhi on Wednesday.

Playing without Leander Paes and Nirupama Vaidyanathan, the Indian men's and women's teams looked very ordinary as they went down to Korea and China respectively.

Doubles specialist Mahesh Bhupathi was outclassed by Korean No.2 player Yong-Il Yoon in straight sets and top Korean Hyung-Taik Lee made an easy work of Davis Cupper Syed Fazaluddin. The two Koreans then combined to beat the Indian pair of Nitin Kirtane and Fazaluddin to give their side a 3-0 verdict.

In the women's event, both Shruti Dhawan and Sai Jayalakshmi squandered early leads to hand China an easy win.

The Indian women, who had lost to Thailand in their first encounter in the three-team event on Tuesday, were condemned to third place without a single point.

Thailand and China will play an inconsequential rubber on Friday after a day's rest on Thursday.

Coming here soon after a heartbreaking loss in the final of the ATP World doubles championship in Bangalore, Bhupathi looked out of sorts and struggled with his returns.

Having played very little singles this season, Bhupathi's ATP ranking has plummetted to 892, which forced the team management to name him as their second player.

Bangkok Asian Games gold medallist Yoon made most of Bhupathi's unforced errors and raced to a 3-0 lead in the first set with a break in the second game which was enough for him to take the set 6-3.

The Indian's groundstrokes failed to help his cause as the ball often found the net or went wide after long rallies.

The Korean number two made his intentions clear in the second set also as he opened up a 4-2 lead with a break in the fifth game, which went to deuce six times.

Though Bhupathi had stretched Yoon to deuce in the earlier game, the Korean prevailed with his all-court game.

Bhupathi held his serve in the ninth, but Yoon was already celebrating as he took 40-0 lead serving for the match and then blasted an ace to finish the encounter in style in an hour and 10 minutes.

With Harsh Mankad, ranked 565 on the ATP list, made to sit out, the responsibility fell on Fazaluddin to keep India's hopes alive.

But his in-form opponent Hyung-Taik Lee gave no such room as he clinically dissected every game to his advantage and scored 6-3, 6-3 win in an hour.