Karan, Ankita in line for triple crowns

By Our Sports Reporter

NEW DELHI, OCT. 21. Karan Rastogi and Ankita Bhambri kept themselves in line for three titles on a day that did not see a single match of the DSCL Open sub-junior and mini-junior tennis Nationals go to three sets, at the DLTA courts here on Saturday.

The penultimate day of the tournament was anything but engrossing. After all the singles semifinals petered out to be tame affairs, the story was not much different in the doubles finals played later in the day.

Whether it was fatigue, peaking too early by some, simply a difference in standards of the players, or a combination of all these, the matches left a lot to be desired. In the end, everyone was left hoping that some better matches would be on view on the final day.

Of course, the winners would not be complaining. Especially, Karan and Ankita, who won a doubles title each and reached the finals of both singles events.

Maharashtra boy Karan won the boys' under-14 doubles title in the company of close friend Divij Sharan of Delhi, beating the combination of Anshuman Dutta of Assam and Rupesh Roy of Bengal, 6-2, 6-1. This was the first National title for the pair.

Karan also made the final of the boys' under-16 section, beating fellow Practennis trainee Rishi Behl 6-1, 6-4, and the under-14 final beating Vinod Murthi of Tamil Nadu more easily, 6-0, 6-2.

Similarly, Ankita won the girls' under-16 title, the only doubles she had entered, along with younger sister Sanaa, beating the Maharashtra pair of Lata Assudani and Priyanka Parekh, 6-2, 6-3. The Bhambri sisters had beaten the same pair in the final of the under-14 section in the previous edition of this championship.

This was one of the better contests as far as the rallies went, and also in the questioning of some line calls, naturally by the losing team, but the scores were not stretched.

Ankita beat Shradha Lodha of Maharashtra to set up an under-14 final with Sanaa, and beat Lata Assudani to confirm the title bout against second seed Isha Lakhani, an MSLTA trainee, which should be a good match.

lThe results:

Boys under-16 (semifinals): Karan Rastogi (Mah) bt Rishi Behl (Mah) 6-1, 6-4; Tejeswar Chigateri (Kar) bt V. Vignesh (TN) 6-4, 6-0.

Doubles (final): Vikran Sane (Mah)/Tejeswar Chigateri (Kar) bt V. Vignesh (TN)/Somdev Dev Varman (TN) 6-2, 6-2.

Under-14 (semifinals): Karan Rastogi (Mah) bt Vinod Murthi (TN) 6-0, 6-2; Tushar Liberhan (Chd) bt Samarth Goutham (Mah) 6-1, 6- 0.

Doubles (final): Karan Rastogi (Mah)/Divij Sharan (Del) bt Anshuman Dutta (Asm)/Rupesh Roy (WB) 6-2, 6-1.

Girls under-16 (semifinals): Ankita Bhambri (Del) bt Lata Assudani (Mah) 6-2, 6-2; Isha Lakhani (Mah) bt Priyanka Parekh (Bng) 6-2, 6-1.

Doubles (final): Ankita Bhambri (Del)/Sanaa Bhambri (Del) bt Lata Assudani (Mah)/Priyanka Parekh (Mah) 6-2, 6-3.

Under-14 (semifinals): Ankita Bhambri (Del) bt Kartiki Bhat (Mah) 6-1, 6-1; Sanaa Bhambri (Del) bt Shardha Lodha (Mah) 6-4, 6-3.

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