Sport
-
Tennis
Prashanth comes back from the brink
CHENNAI, JAN. 26. Hitting impressive winners from the back of the court, Tamil Nadu's Ajay Selvaraj was cruising to his maiden AITA title, serving for the match at 5-2 in the decider. But Statemate and the top seed, Vijay Sundar Prashanth dug deep to pull off a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) victory in exactly two hours in the final of the boys' under-16 section of the The Hindu-The Sportstar AITA ranking South Zone junior tennis tournament at KTC courts, Kotivakkam, here, on Saturday.
Going by the way the 15-year-old Selvaraj from APSC MHSS, Tuticorin, went about his shots in the first set, one thought it would be curtains for Prashanth. Racing to a 3-0 lead breaking Prashanth's serve in the first game, Selvaraj was not troubled very much as he pocketed the first set. However, Prashanth cut down on the unforced errors and produced some beautiful passing shots at crucial points to take the match into the third set.
Prashanth, a tenth standard student of Chennai's PSBB SSS (K.K. Nagar), and a trainee of Tamil Nadu Academy of Tennis Excellence, was well and truly out of the match when Selvaraj was serving for the match at 5-2. And the turnaround came.
Prashanth broke the fourth seed Selvaraj at love, and then went on to win the next two games to make it 5-5. He, in fact, missed a chance in the 12th game to serve out the match. The tie-breaker, which ensued, was a close one which Prashanth managed to win. In the end analysis, what clinched the match in Prashanth's favour was his retrieving skills and to some extent by the erratic play of his opponent.
In the girls' under-16 summit clash, 15-year-old Varsha Shivshankar, the top seed, from Bishop Cotton School, Bangalore clinched her maiden AITA title overpowering Statemate and sixth-seeded Pooja Shree 6-1, 6-0 in about 40 minutes.
Mr. N. Ravi, Editor, The Hindu, gave away the prizes.
lOther results (final):
Girls under-14: Pooja Shree (Kar) bt 4-Gayathri Krishnan (TN) 6-2, 6-3.
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Sport
|
